Asia Times: Ex-communist fighters adjust to a life with cash



	November 3, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Ex-communist fighters adjust to a life with cash
By Prangtip Daorueng

BETONG, Thailand - For decades, survival for Malaysian communist fighters who refused to give up armed struggle meant hunting and hiding along the Thai-Malaysian border. Today, the more than 100 former jungle fighters of the Communist Party of Malaya are building a society able to cope with the cash economy - but with large doses of a communal lifestyle as well.

''At first it was very confusing,'' 43-year-old Foong Tuck Woh, head of Friendship Village 4 in Betong, Yala province, says of life after communist leaders signed a truce in 1989 that ended the armed rebellion.

''We didn't have any money, and when we were given some, we didn't know how to use it. We had no idea where to go, so we spent our first two years mostly in the village,'' he recalls. This experience was shared by other former members of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), which in the forties had fought Japanese occupiers, and later turned its ire on British colonizers. By the fifties, however, the guerrillas were driven deeper into the jungles and were limited to the Malaysian border with Thailand.

In December 1989, in the southern Thai town of Hat Yai, CPM leader Chin Peng signed two ceasefire accords with the Malaysian and Thai authorities, saying that all three parties would end all armed action. This marked the virtual surrender of the CPM. More than 1,000 of its members joined a project in which the Thai government donated residential areas and land near the border.

''We joined the communist party because we thought we needed to build a new society where justice counts,'' says Foong Tuck Woh, who left home in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur and went to the jungles at the age of 17. ''But the situation has changed, society has changed, there is no need to think about the old things,'' he explains. ''All we want is to start over and make sure our kids have a good future.''

The right to live in Thailand was agreed upon as a part of a plan to solve the security problem on the border. Now in their tenth year of living here permanently, Foong says that villagers see bright prospects for the future.

In September, the whole community applied for Thai citizenship - a ticket to full identity and status precious not only for them but also for the younger generation born on Thai territory. ''It was agreed 10 years ago when we joined the program that we would be allowed Thai citizenship after a while,'' explains Foong. ''It means a lot to us. First of all Thailand is where we have chosen to live, not only for ourselves, but also for our children.''

However, building a community from scratch was not easy, especially in the first few years. Although the Thai Army allowed each group to choose their own village location, they had to decide how to manage the limited resources given by the Thai authorities. Each family was given land and 16,000 baht (US$42 at current rates) to build a house, plus15 rai (6 acres) of agricultural land.

To make do with scarce resources, the villagers built houses together without identifying which would go to which owner. They pooled together their daily allowance to buy food and medicine, and built a central kitchen for communal use.

''We survived because of this,'' says Li Fu Chai, a 47-year-old former physics student at Nanyang University who became a doctor of Chinese traditional medicine after18 years in the jungle. ''After we finished building houses, we gave the most convenient areas to the old and the handicapped first - then we did lottery for the rest,'' he smiles.

Although founding the village was difficult, no hardship was worse than jungle life. ''When we were in the jungle, we were prepared to die. We couldn't keep anything for us, even our children,'' says 74-year-old Jin I Ching, who has spent 50 years in the jungle since the war against the Japanese. ''Now is the first time we can make a living normally and have something of our own,'' he adds.

Li recalls days and nights of walking in the deep forest, carrying at least 5kg of belongings. Entire days were spent digging tunnels, some of which they built to hide from government troops. Today, some of these tunnels have become tourist attractions. Likewise, the old jungle school for Marxist-Leninist education and training areas have been turned into a small museum where former jungle fighters now serve as tour guides. Income from tourism goes to the village cooperative.

For Li Fu Chai and other parents, it is time to think about life ahead and not the past. Their preoccupation is seeing their children get good grades in school. Li's only son is turning 10 years old like many other children - he married in the first year after settling in the village, at the same time as 13 other couples. ''Kids from here are doing very well in school. A few of them top their classes, many others are among the top five,'' says Foong.

For now, villagers are waiting to become Thai citizens. As before, everybody has the same plan and wants to stay together. ''We don't want to move out of the village,'' says the village head, Foong. ''It is good to remain in a group and work together.''

''We are like friends as well as brothers and sisters here,'' explains Li. ''After we receive citizenship, we are going to use the same Thai last name.''

(Inter Press Service)

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©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.