Evening star., 1950-12-03

" NlllIlcoe SOill1luIllSI regime III
pread banditry in Malaga, which
sistance of the rajahs and sultans
who traditionally furnished the
village headmen with political ad-
vice and guidance, the bewildered
Malays are the targets Of vague
and conflicting theories emanating
from local politicos, whose ha-
rangues are not calculated to
soothe their fears.
LARGE Conservative Party
For instance, there is Tan Cheng
Lock, the leader of the very i'm
portant Malayan Chinese Associa-
ton. He is a commander of the
Order of the British Empire and
frequently addresses the multi
tudes in the accents of peace.
Nevertheless, there is a stubborn
rumor that Tan Cheng Lock is
also one of the officers of the
Council for Joint Action which
supplied every possible aid to the
terrorists in the early days, and
which is still one of Che most ac-
tive Communist-front organiza-
tions in Malaga.
Interestingly enough, the largest
political party in Malaga is thor
oughly Conservative. This is the
United Malay National Organiza-
ton CUMNO) comprising most of
the literate Malays, the business
and professional men and the rep
resentatives of the former ruling
class. 1t includes practically no
Chinese which generally are men,
bers of one of several separate
groups. each smaller than the
UMNO. but far more numerous in
the aggregate.
The UMNO is run by the scion
of an old and wealthy Johore
family. Dato (ChieO Inchi Onn
ibn Ja'afar is a Moslem, formerly
newspaper publisher in Johore
Bahru and later Prime Minister
of that state. He claims a men,
bership of over million for his
UMNO, but since this would in
clude practically every Malay man,
woman and child in the peninsula,
it is felt that this is an exaggera-
ton. Actually, the UMNO is cred
tied with something under a mil
lion members.
Next in Importance is the Malay
Nationalist Party, which is to say,
the Malay Communist Party.
Headed by a mysterious figure
named DR.. Baharanuddin, it num-
bers about 100000 members and
exerts the real Communist pres
sure in Malaga. Probably less
than 40 per cent of its membership
is Malay; the balance are Chinese,
1ndonesians. Eurasians and Sa-
kais. An undisclosed number of
Europeans are also included.
Red Army Elusive
The Council for Joint Action is
composed almost wholly of Chi
nese and Eurasians, and it is
strongly anti-occidental. It's men,
bership is largely among the
wealthy immigrant families and
its numbers are we'll concealed. It
is headed by a wealthy Chinese
named Tan Ka Kee. allegedly a
close relative of Tan Cheng Lock,
who also operates one of Singa-
pores famous inland Coney
Islands called wide Worlds" One
of the CJA's Steering Committee
is youngish man named John
Eber, son of respectable Eura-
sian family of Singapore. Eber
was graduated from Harvard and
Oxford. but he is violently anti
white. His activities have already
ruined his father, once a kings
counsel in Singapore.
The Malayan Democratic Union
is a highly articulate organization
in the press but is without official
leadership. Apparently, it's men,
berS are exclusively university
trained lawyers. Its policy is anti
British and obstructionist.
The API MALAY for "fire") is
the symbol for the Malay Youth
Organization which appears to
exist only to supply young men
to the Communist gangs in the
interior. Outlawed for some years,
the APP still drills and trains it's
recruits in accordance with CP
directives. The leader of the API
goes by the name of Bustamen
and is the author of book
published in 1947 called "Revolu-
ton by Bluff"
The Chinese Communist Party
has small but very exclusive
membership. Its officers are
changed at irregular intervals
and it performs no active revolu-
tionary work. Instead it creates
and directs the activities of other
movements and is the channel
along which Communist literature
and directives are passed to other
points in Southeast Asia.
At the present time, the Malay
Peninsula is far from a happy
land. Even in Singapore, all
island separated from the penin-
sula by an arm of the Straits of
Malacca, and still a defended
crown colony, there is little free
dom from gangsterism. And from
Perak, in the Malayan north, to
Johore in the south, the planters
and engineers go well heeled
when they fare abroad, and their
pleasure cars and trucks are often
formidably armored.
AS in the case of the French in
Indo- China, the British can do
very little in Malaga unless they
go "all out" The troops are gen.
orally too late to the scene of a
massacre, or they are ambushed
on the way. And while it is known
that a regular Communist army
exists, it is as elusive as smoke in