Yesterday I on my visit to Cliff, I read him this translation of an article in the Berita Harian that was graciously translated by a friend of mine, Azzuwan Aziz and further tidied up by Fong Peng Lim, a friend of Cliff's daughter Aisyah.
He pointed out that it was not only the planters that came under attack but the miners too - in the tin mines near Ipoh and Kuantan....
Image courtesy Berita Harian
The Malayan Communist Party (PKM) committed numerous atrocities in its massacre of the locals in an attempt to establish a communist state which plunged the country into a long era of emergency that lasted from 1948 to 1960. The reign of terror was most visible after the Japanese defeat and withdrawal when there was a power vacuum before the British were able to restructure the administration on 12th September 1945.
In a period of less than three weeks, the PKM came out from the jungles, seized police stations and executed locals, especially the Malays, that were thought to have cooperated with the Japanese. Clifford Gerald Standley, 88, a veteran who served in the British Armed Forces during World War II had his own share of special encounters and experience with the violent communist movement. Standley served in India (including what is now Pakistan) and Myanmar before retiring from military service in 1948 after fighting the Japanese in Malaya, and joined the police force in Singapore in the same year. “I don’t remember how many locals were killed, but for sure they were a lot of them” he said in a recent interview in Petaling Jaya. He described that it was a difficult and harrowing period for citizens to earn a living as they were on constant threats from the communists which made them fearful to go out to work or even working on their farms. It caused a massive disruption of food supply, the agricultural sector and dampened the economic growth.
The Communists Reign of Terror
Within the militant communist organisation headed by Chin Peng, there was a special anti-European unit that was tasked to search, hunt and exterminate any European officers.
Sadly, in the first few years of the communist insurgency, over 100 European planters some of whom were among Standley’s circle of friends were also killed. The ongoing battle between the country’s security forces and the communist party escalated with the killings of a few prominent British administrative officers that forced the 1948 Malayan Emergency Declaration. Standley had accepted the position of Anglo-Johore Rubber Estate manager in Bekok near Labis in 1950 after the Natrah Tragedy.
Despite having left the police force, he went on helping his friends in an operation to hunt down the communists in jungles that spread across the peninsular as part of the British Administration’s efforts to protect the people who were mostly living in villages along the jungles. “I have lived in the period of Chin Peng’s Oppression and ruthless ambition for power”. “Chin Peng saw the British as an obstruction, therefore he turned the British plan to improve the economy by opening plantation estates into an opportunity to massacre local workers and exterminate the European managers in large military operations.” according to Standley who originated from Yorkshire, Britain. “Every time we needed to journey near or far, for example to Singapore for a few days, the terrorists would be waiting for us on the way back.” “Thus we always had to identify alternative routes”, he explained, reminding us that the roads those days were laterite trails surrounded by bushes and jungle.”
Attack On Employee
According to Standley, the communists moved in small militant groups that were known as “Bintang Tiga” (Three Stars or Reds) and were highly familiarised with the thick jungle terrains that engulfed the whole Malaysian peninsular from Singapore, Johor all the way up to Southern Thailand. “Imagine the sheer size of the hideouts of the communists that provided the opportunities to attack the European estate and mine workers that they hated.” The estate under his watch that was located on the south of the peninsula was among the “hottest” targets for ambush.
“They frequently marked lorries, cars and other vehicles that went in and out as they are easy targets to exterminate European planters.” He recalled.
Standley recalled the year 1950, when he deliberately took his bicycle at 5 a.m risking the curfew and cycled all the way to Melaka just to tour around the city. “My friends in the police force were against my adventurous idea but thank God I went and came back safely”, he said.
Night Attack
As an estate manager, Standley was constantly worried about the safety of the workers that were facing the dangers from the ambush and looting that had taken many lives and wounded more.
“We could hear gun shots every night when they came out and shot everyone including the police officers who were manning the security posts” he told us. He himself escaped with his life from a few guerrilla attacks on European planters until it caught his enemies’ attention and became well known to them which made him a special target for the communist revenge.
Standley survived five attempts on his life between 1951 and 1955; and his story was published on the front page of The Strait Times in 1955. Recalling all five events, Standley said, the first attack happened when he was 25 years old that landed him in the hospital for 4 months due to a hip injury. However, my life still had a long way to go and I escaped the second and third attempt on my life without injury that occurred in the areas around the estate.
Life Snatched
However, the next ambush was something that is deeply entrenched in his mind.
Standley was already behind the wheel to visit the Kempas Rubber Estate that was about two hours journey from Bekok. Before he managed to make it off the estate bungalow compound, an estate worker stopped him. “It turned out that a group of gunmen had blocked off the estate exit road and were hiding in the bushes expecting to ambush my Land Rover”, he said. Subsequently, the gunmen were attacked by the police. However, the communists did not give up, because only 14 days later, they used the same modus operandi for another ambush.
Recalling the day of infamy on October 21, 1955 that snatched the life of his most loyal staff, Special Constable (SC) Abu Somaa while he suffered serious injuries, his face changed. They departed at dawn that day to send the workers’ children to school in the town of Pekan Baru Bekok three kilometres away.
On the way out, a few men dressed in the usual village attire were staring at them from the roadside. When they arrived on that hilly spot on the way back the road was blocked off.
Abu who was driving that day tried to steer the vehicle away but was forced off the road under heavy communist fire. “They were merciless to Abu who was unarmed and was in no position to retaliate. Abu was severely wounded and fell from the vehicle and the terrorists shot him in the head”, he lamented in frustrated anger.
Seriously Injured
Meanwhile, Standley suffered a few gun shot wounds that penetrated his left thigh and to his ribs, managed to struggle to safety. A bloodied Standley finally managed to reach the estate perimeters some 500 meters away from the scene. He was then sent to the British Military Hospital in Kluang some 65 kilometers away and forced to celebrate his birthday there.
The tragedy made the British administrators realise that the communists burning anger for vengeance on Standley put the whole estate in grave danger. They decided to change the Bekok Estate manager and thought Standley needed to be back home in Britain for the treatment to his injuries. However, Standley found himself restless in Britain. Missing the warm-hearted locals, the beautiful nature, the weather and the multitude of cultures, he returned to Malaysia in 1956. He landed a job with a commercial firm, became a citizen and started his own family in Malaysia.
Undeserving
He was sympathetic when the cremated remains of Chin Peng was banned from entering Malaysia but he made it clear that the communist leader did not deserve to return to the country because of the massive destruction that he had unleashed on the country. Although it is true the Japanese occupation plunged the country’s economy to the bottom but it was the communists that terrorised the country”, he said. Standley stressed that the state of emergency caused by the communist was the worst era that he had ever lived through in Malaysia but alas, it was a reality not understood by the current generation.
