UMANY: The Reincarnation of UMCLS?

IT all started with DAP’s Ronnie Liu’s posting about the movement in the Thai capital where demonstrators are up against both the government and the King of Thailand. His caption was simple but subtly seditious: “Now in Bangkok. They are saying no to the King.” Ronnie Liu’s post was to pre-empt a possible proclamation of emergency by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong following an audience with the Cabinet. The King never proclaimed an emergency and Ronnie Liu was arrested four days ago by the police and is being investigated under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act for inciting hate against a Ruler or a government. He has since been released on bail.

A couple of days ago, several photos of posts made by the University of Malaya Association of New Youth (UMANY) stating that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong should not interfere in national affairs made their rounds in the various social media. A photo of several people in a square showing the ‘Hunger Games’ three-finger salute caught my interest.

Firstly, in the ‘Hunger Games’ movie, the salute is a gesture to mean thanks, admiration, and goodbye to someone they love. But in Bangkok, the salute is to show anger toward the country’s royalist military establishment. It has also been flashed at royal motorcades by Thai protesters.

Secondly, some of those depicted doing the salute are those who showed no decorum during graduation ceremonies at the University of Malaya. It comes as no surprise that these people are the buds of republicanism – people with no respect for history nor the Federal Constitution.

Some photos also show them with well-known members of the DAP. They may be coincidental; but if the DAP impresses them so much, perhaps the DAP should advise them that while championing liberties, the Federal Constitution as the paramount law of the land must be respected to the dot. Unless these clueless youngsters reflect a reincarnation of another society formed within the compound of the University of Malaya, that is now defunct.

In December last year, Ronnie Liu appeared at a gathering to commemorate and glorify the butchers from the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). At the gathering the ADUN of Sungai Pelek admitted that his father was a communist and that the latter strived to free Malaya from its British ‘colonialists’.

First of all, the CPM was never interested in the independence of Malaya, and definitely, nor in democracy. Chin Peng never harboured any loyalty to Malaya. Instead, he said that, influenced by communist doctrine, he wanted to join Mao’s forces to fight a guerrilla war in China. “The same sentiments still applied…I was intending to die for my motherland, a land I had never even visited” wrote Chin Peng in 2003. It means that 14 years after the signing of the Hatyai peace agreement, Chin Peng still regarded China as his motherland (Alias Chin Peng – My Side of History, p.133, 2003). Malaya (later Malaysia) was never home to this butcher.

After withdrawing into southern Thailand following the end of the First Emergency (1948-1960), the CPM Central Committee in 1961 carried out a review of its past policies and chartered a course for the resumption of armed struggle, and spread its doctrine amongst the Thai Chinese which later dominated the 8th and 12th Regiments.

They set up Marxist-Leninist Training Schools to indoctrinate the youth, and by 1963, more than 2,000 indoctrinated youths had returned to Malaya and Singapore. In Singapore, they infiltrated the Nanyang University Students Union (NUSU). 10 days after the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, the police entered the university to arrest communist leaders.

It was also during this time that communist cadres from Johor, Selangor and Perak crossed to Indonesia to be trained and armed by the Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI).

Nanyang University in Singapore was not the only university that was infiltrated by communist agents. They also infiltrated the University of Malaya Chinese Language Society (UMCLS). It started in mid-1970 with a group of students calling themselves the Young Socialists planning to position themselves for the upcoming election, and in June 1971 succeeded in gaining control of the UMCLS Executive Committee as planned. The UMCLS quickly formed ancillary bodies to spread the communist doctrine. Bodies such as the Dramatic Study Sub-Committee and the Cultural Exchange Preparatory Committee were designed to launch propaganda offensive.

The CPM link to the UMCLS was confirmed on Oct 14 1973 when security forces shot dead a communist terrorist near Tanah Hitam, Chemor in Perak and found a work report by a senior student underground movement leader to his superiors on the activities conducted by the UMCLS. UMCLS manipulation of the University of Malaya Students Union (UMSU) led to the illegal students riot on Sept 21 1974.

The UMCLS also issued pamphlets claiming that the fall in rubber prices and rising cost of living had resulted in deaths due to starvation of villagers in the Baling area of Kedah. This was supported by a transmission by the Suara Revolusi Malaya radio station in Beijing condemning the Malaysian government for causing the deaths of the people of Baling.

On Dec 9 1974, police raided a house in SEA Park, Petaling Jaya that was occupied by members of the UMCLS and seized printing blocks, imitation rifles, boots, propaganda music cassettes and banners.

So, now we have the UMANY questioning the authority of person above all others in Malaysia – His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. Is the UMANY, a student’s association that identifies itself with the DAP, now a revolutionary front to fight against His Majesty’s government and the people of Malaysia?

If it is, when will the authority be going to nip this cancer in the bud before the red stars of the UMCLS appear again terrorising our streets as they did 50 to 60 years ago?

This article first appeared on The Mole