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Saturday, September 17, 2011

A Merdeka salute to martyr S.A. Ganapathy !

James Wong  Wing  On
BY

In the long and winding course of the people's struggle against British colonialism and Japanese fascism for Merdeka, both peaceful and armed, many hundreds of brave forerunners were martyred on the battlefields and jails. S.A. Ganapathy (left), veteran of the communist underground resistance to Japanese occupation and postwar trade unionist, was one of them.

S.A. Ganapathy, first president of the 300,000-strong Pan Malayan Federation of Trade Unions (PMFTU) was hanged to death by the colonial authorities on 4 May, 1949 after being questionably "convicted" for allegedly "in illegal possession of firearms".

According to Chin Peng, during the anti-colonial war, "some 200 of my followers were hanged, among them a number of women". Chin Peng also estimates that "between four and five thousand" of the anti-colonial fighters "were shot dead". (see Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History, Singapore, Media Masters; p.9)

In the first part of his memoirs Zaman Pergerakan Sehingga 1948 (SIRD, Kuala Lumpur, 2005), Ganapathy's fellow postwar trade unionist Abdullah C.D., who now lives in southern Thailand with Rashid Maidin, Suriani Abdullah (aka Eng Ming Ching @ Ah Ming), Abu Samah @ Sibar and Siti Norkiah @ Minah, recalls the days when they worked together to organise working classes of all races for the Merdeka struggle.

According to Abdullah C.D. who signed the 1989 Haadyai Peace Accords as the Chairman of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), Ganapathy travelled together with him to New Delhi in 1947 to attend the Asian Conference on behalf of the PMFTU. Also attending the anti-colonial conference in India was Miau Siau for PMFTU as well as Dr. Burhanuddin Al-Helmy and Salleh Daud representing the progressive Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM).

The draft of the Part 2 of Abdullah C.D.' memoirs have already been completed recently. It deals with more focus the outbreak and operations of the anti-colonial war on the ground.

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