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MALAYSIA: Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs has banned a book on the memoir of a woman, Shamsiah Fakeh, who was a figure of the Communist Party of Malaysia, and this ban is not sitting well with some in the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition.
On April 16, a member of Parliament from the Pakatan Harapan made a plea to the Home Ministry to lift the ban on the book and on another title that was also banned simultaneously.
Another member of the ruling coalition, who is also the granddaughter of Shamsiah, spoke against the ban. She is a member of the Democratic Action Party, the largest party in the PH coalition.
The books banned are: Memoir Shamsiah Fakeh: Dari Awas ke Rejimen ke-10 and Komrad Asi (Rejimen 10): Dalam Denyut Nihilisme Sejarah.
In English, they mean Memoir Shamsiah Fakeh: From Awas to the 10th Regiment and Comrade Asi (10th Regiment): In the Pulse of Historical Nihilism. Gerakbudaya published both.
The publisher has criticised the ban on its books documenting the Party’s struggle, saying it restricts intellectual discourse and historical reflection, reports Malaysiakini.
Shamsiah’s memoir was first published by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 2004 and is in its third reprint, while Gerakbudaya published the second title in 2022.
MP Lee Chean Chung, who hails from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s party, PKR, said on Facebook that he was “shocked by Gerak Budaya’s revelation that the two books have been banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs (KDN).”
He said ironically, the book on Shamsiah was published in 2004 and was never the subject of bans under the Barisan Nasional or the Perikatan Nasional regimes.
“But has now been banned under the Madani Government led by Pakatan Harapan.”
He said the coalition is supposed to be committed to upholding knowledge, nurturing a culture of reading, debate, and critical thought.
“We mourned the passing last month of the eminent scholar, the late Royal Professor Tan Sri Dr Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, as a great loss. Yet, only a month later, the same Madani Government has banned books.”
In a lengthy missive on the ban, the MP made it clear that history must be (politically speaking) inclusive, not propaganda monopolised by the victors. The victors here are the PH regime in power.
He also called on the party to honour highly the late former party deputy leader, Dr Syed Husin Ali, who was a renowned leftist intellectual.
He also lamented that a member of Syed Husin’s party, now minister of Home Affairs, has banned the books.
Shamsiah Fakeh, who died in 2008, was a prominent Malaysian nationalist, feminist, and former leader of the Angkatan Wanita Sedar (AWAS), Malaya’s first nationalist women’s organisation. Known as a “fiery orator,” she was a key figure in the leftist anti-colonial movement against British rule.
A granddaughter of Shamsiah Fakeh has also urged the Home Ministry to lift a ban on the Malayan Communist Party figure’s memoir.
Jamaliah Jamaluddin, in a statement on Facebook, expressed disappointment with the Home Ministry’s move to ban the two books.
“The memoir has been published since 2004, more than two decades ago, and has been reprinted several times. Its content mainly recounts the life journey and experiences of Shamsiah,” the Bandar Utama assemblyperson said.
“There has been no extremist movement reported to have arisen from the writing or publication of this book,” she said, describing the move as “unfounded”.
