Rashid Maidin memoirs

11 In detention

The proclamation of the Emergency was towards the end of June 1948. I had not imagined that the proclamation would be so soon nor how mercilessly it would be carried out. My wife who was ill then thought something unexpected would happen to me.

A Malay intelligence man appeared with a summons for me to attend at the police station. I told my wife and three kids about this and kissed them goodbye with an assurance that I would be back the next day. I went down the stairs followed by the tears of my children. My wife hid her tears. That was the last time we were together.

I was detained as a communist and was first locked up in Telok Anson (now called Telok Intan), then in Taiping prison. I was handcuffed together with a young Chinese and put on the train. I bumped into Aminudin Baki when he was returning to Chemor after schooling in Singapore. He seemed uneasy. "Brother Rashid arrested?” he asked, shaking his head followed by “Brother don’t worry, be firm and don’t waver.” I replied, “I will not waver.”

Before we parted he gave me an English magazine he was reading and one dollar. I refused to accept them but he said they might become useful.

Aminudin was then under the influence of the PKMM and API. He used to come to see me and Abdullah CD at the office of the MCP at Ipoh. He had asked us to help him to study in Indonesia but then the Indonesians were fighting the Dutch and he was forced instead to go to Singapore. He later became chief adviser on education in the Federation.

After three nights in the lock-up, Taiping, I was sent to prison. I wore my own clothes but had to eat prison food which consisted of rice mixed either with tapioca or sweet potato and served with kangkong. A piece of fish was added once a week. One bowl a meal, and no second helping. In the mornings it was rice broth with ground paddy husks with a bit of salt. It was boring, nauseating, but like it or not, we had no choice but to lump it.

Six months after 50 more prisoners joined us. Among them Ustaz Abu Bakar Al- Baqir, teachers Sabrun and Sarip and Osman Bakar of Perak, teacher Mat Din of Kedah. Others came from Pahang,and Johore, members of the PKMM, PETA, BTM, trade unions and other organisations. Escorted to the detention camp at Pulau Jerejak were Malays, Chinese and Indians. In our group the Malays and Chinese were more or less the same in number. Most of the young were in their teens or early twenties. We were in chains during the journey tied up in groups of ten to twelve, closely guarded by Malay policemen led by English superintendents. We walked, dragging our chains watched by the public, then boarded a ferry at Butterworth forPulau Jerejak.

What was strange was that we were not questioned. Only once did a special branch policeman from Ipoh see me and that was to identify me as Rashid bin Maidin. Perhaps the colonialists were too busy making the arrests; it was known that 5000 were detained in one night after which the arrests continued.

At Pulau Jerejak there were at that time 500 prisoners made up of various races and placed in 7 to 8 sheds large enough to hold about 100 persons. The food was the same as we had in Taiping jail but we cooked our own food. To improve things we set up a committee to organise a hunger strike to win the right to buy from outside and receive things from our relatives. The committee was made up of all communities; the Malays were myself and Osman Bakar, a member of the PKMM from Tanjong Rambutan.

The camp officers were probably shamed by our action. They threatened us by saying refusal to eat was an offence. We replied that we should be able to do what we asked for. After five days they agreed to our demands; we were allowed to buy from the canteen once a week and to receive parcels from outside. I had little patience during the negotiations with the White officers and argued with them. So they abused me saying I did not respect them and was rude.