A delicate balance

By Maria J Dass, The Sun

Former Perak chief police officer and Special Branch commander Tan Sri Yuen Yuet Leng talks about managing mass gatherings and his experiences during the May 13 racial riots that he hopes never to see again.

As someone who was at the forefront of the fight against the communists during the Emergency, he shares with Maria J. Dass his thoughts on idolising communist leaders by some quarters and the threat that the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) still poses in present time.

How do you view recent developments in the country especially the turn of events that followed the plan to hold the Bersih 2.0 rally?

There is nothing wrong with the demands that are being made by the organisers of Bersih per se, but the problem is the interference from outside the organisation. Other parties with different intentions have joined in the fray and are exploiting the situation.

On top of that, the situation has been compounded by organisations coming out to make threats, and parties such as Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) whose members turned up to protest wearing t-shirts with pictures of communist leaders in the country emblazoned on them.

Why is this worrying?

The PSM does not seem to understand the parameters of the peace accord signed with CPM head Chin Peng in 1989.

Under the accord, the CPM was never dissolved, it was only a disbandment of the communist armed forces that allowed some of them to come back.
If you are going to sport a picture of Chin Peng on your t-shirt, you are only asking for trouble. How do you expect the police not to take action?

I agree with what the Special Branch had done. This problem has been thrown in the police’s lap and involves national security and public order.
The Inspector-General of Police has to do what is best to prevent a clash of forces, until better heads prevail.
You must remember Malaysia was one of the countries where the communist ideology was spread through violence. The violence lasted for a long time and affected a lot of people and many lives were lost.

But for a lot of people, the Communist Party of Malaya is practically redundant.

I know the communists and how they operate. They won’t dissolve the party until they really want to.
The CPM has the same ideology as (Chinese communist revolutionary) Mao Zedong who believed that the highest form of struggle is an armed struggle, and not a political struggle.
Chin Peng is smart and has said that he does not want to go back to an armed struggle, but this he said for himself. He did not say this on behalf of the party. It is all very subtle.

Malaysians are so trusting. I can be compassionate and trusting too, but I know when they are telling half-truths. So as long as they do not say they are dissolved, this group which espouses armed struggle is at liberty to pick up arms when the legal system fails.

It is different with communist parties in Australia, America and United Kingdom which espouse legal and not armed struggle. In these countries, they do not promote violence but only bear socialist objectives.

Is it cause for concern that remnants of the CPM are still around?

When they withdrew in 1953, a small group of them that survived made their way across the border where they recruited Thai Chinese and managed to continue propagating their ideology to Malaysians from across the border.

This is how the second wave of the Emergency got started.

The Special Branch, as an intelligence organisation, has to have the historical knowledge of the workings of the party, and note their ideology of armed struggle as the highest form of struggle.

But where PSM and some other organisations are concerned, many people question why the police seem to act against only certain parties, while others who make seditious comments and threats get away. Won’t the public equate this with police persecution?

Yes and no. The police usually back the effort of the incumbent government of the day so long as it acts by the rule of law, but they need to be more courageous and brave to act when supporters of the incumbent government go too far.

When they are hesitant, they are bound to be accused of being unfair. Being balanced will earn the police some respect.

Also, the police will probably be doing a favour for leaders of political parties who find it hard to reprimand errant members. Let the police do that work for them.

The police have a pragmatic policy where sometimes they have to do what seems to be the wrong thing at the right time to avert an escalation of emotions.

You just have to do it, because if you do not do this wrong thing at the right time, the situation can blow up.

So the police have to act as fast as possible on information on both sides. Troublemakers from both sides have to be picked up.

But there is also a perception that politicians are interfering in police work.

I don’t envy the position the police are in now.

During my time, the main problem they had to address was the communist insurgency. Once this was over, it seemed like Malaysians had won the war against the communists, but lost the peace among themselves.
I say this because they were united in the fight against the communists, but once this was over, each retreated into his own racial cocoon, leading to a lot of debate over matters and their rights as enshrined in the Constitution.

Is it necessary to bring in the army to assist the police (in keeping order) as is being proposed?

It is quite natural for the army to be brought in to support the police. This was done to stamp out the May 13, 1969 racial riots, but at that time the move to call in the army was to resolve a situation that had already blown out of proportion.

And this time around?

This time the police action is more pre-emptive.

They are putting in place measures to address the security risks that may arise. This is good as the problem is addressed before it happens.

They are thus better equipped and organised to address any problems that may arise, as compared to May 13.

I had seen the atrocities of May 13 and don’t ever want it to happen again in my lifetime.

I will never ever forget the state of the bodies I saw and the heart-wrenching task of having to look for my missing men by searching at all hospital mortuaries in Kuala Lumpur.

But I will never forget the acts of my Malay colleagues who protected me when there were attempts to harm me, and likewise Chinese colleagues who protected their Malay friends.

People involved in the rallies planned this time around are those who do not know anything about what had happened and can never fathom the effects of it.

But aren’t the people today more educated and perhaps more discerning and mature, and therefore less gullible and taken in with the rhetoric of rogue leaders?

People are better educated, but they still think along the same racial lines, and education makes them do things in a more sophisticated way – and this applies to both sides of the divide.

It is impossible for Malaysians to integrate when each is still stuck in his racial cocoon.

To compound this problem, we now have a problem with corruption which is again being looked at through racial eyes due to power being held by certain political parties.

The trouble is that the race-based political parties we have now are all looking after the needs of their own members, more than addressing the widening racial divide.

This is why I feel that the Malay leaders who are in control should make an effort to look after the needs of the minority Chinese and Indians instead of sidelining them, since the race-based parties are not doing their job.

But some say this is precisely why we need a strong opposition to keep things in check.

The Opposition we have is not that strong actually. They only appear to be strong because the incumbent government has weakened itself by allowing corruption and racial polarisation to fester. These problems need to be addressed and I think the present Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak) is trying very hard to make the changes.

Back to demands for free and fair elections – don’t the people have a right to demand a stop to manipulation of the electoral process? They want the leaders that they choose to serve them. Why not address this once and for all?

Interference by outside forces aside, there is nothing wrong with Bersih 2.0’s demands and the incumbent government must hear the genuine worries of the people.

They need to pry things apart and deal with people who are sincere with their concerns. Then legitimate complaints can be looked into.

People must see that the incumbent government is really trying to make a difference by addressing genuine concerns.

Both sides (government and opposition) must work together for the interest of the nation. The timing is such that there appears to be a united front against the government, and this frightens them.

Similarities have been drawn between the recent uprisings in the Middle East including that in Tahrir Square, Egypt, and the Bersih 2.0 rally. Do you think the situation is the same?

The situation here is different. There is still a lot of hope left here, but in those countries the situation is more acute. Except for demonstrations, there is no other avenue for the people there to speak up.

In your opinion and experience in the Special Branch, should the Bersih walk be allowed to go on so that the people can express their views?

People must be given an avenue for expression, so the police must be more liberal in issuing permits for gatherings.

I would rather it be allowed to go on but be held in a place where there will be better crowd control and security, like in a stadium. The police can be there to guide them along.

This is a process of growing up in a democracy. It is good that the organisers of Bersih 2.0 agreed to move their programme to a stadium.

With the intervention and edict of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, all parties involved should use the opportunity to climb down from where they are in a dignified manner. No one has lost face, and the only one who has won is the nation and its security.