Laughable to link DAP with communism, says ex-CPM leader Abdullah CD

INTERVIEW | A former leader of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) has deemed attempts to associate the DAP with communism as laughable.

In an interview with Malaysiakini, the now-dissolved party’s former chairperson Abdullah CD (photo) noted that the DAP has very anti-communist roots.

Founded in 1965 following the separation of Singapore and Malaysia, DAP was a splinter party from Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP).

The latter’s late founder Lee Kuan Yew was a staunch anti-communist, Abdullah stressed.

“Detractors of DAP have attempted to bring the party down by equating it to communists. This is a humorous accusation.

“If we know our history, we would know that PAP leader Lee was in fact very anti-communist. It was Lee who said his party was socialist and not communist. Socialism is not communism.

“By anti-communist, what I mean is that the CPM movement in Singapore was destroyed by Lee.

“This was even though he had become prime minister thanks to the support from leftist movements including the CPM, who had mobilised the rakyat to support PAP at the time,” he said when met at his home at a "peace village" in Kampung Chulaborn Patana 12, Sukhirin, in southern Thailand recently.

Not only did Lee (above) attack the CPM, Abdullah said he had also successfully weakened the entire leftist movement in Singapore.

DAP not linked to CPM

Abdullah, whose full name is Cik Dat Anjang Abdullah, founded and led the CPM’s 10th Regiment in Pahang from 1949 till the party disbanded in 1989.

He had also represented the party as one of its signatories at the 1989 Hat Yai Peace Accord.

Now 96 years old and suffering from speech difficulties, he was interviewed through his son-in-law and spokesperson Indrajaya Abdullah.

Due to DAP’s anti-communist roots, Abdullah described allegations that the party was somehow linked to the CPM as slander.

“The relationship between the CPM and DAP is not like what is being said in Malaysia. The DAP was a splinter from Singapore’s PAP. It has no links with the CPM at all.

“Perhaps some progressives see the DAP as being in line with CPM. But DAP is not the same as the CPM. Itu fitnah (That is slander),” he said.

Meanwhile, Indrajaya, who chairs the Hat Yai Peace Coalition, opined that Malaysians ought to be aware of the political agenda behind efforts to link DAP to CPM.

“I think this might be driven by certain Malaysian politicians to pressure DAP. They have already successfully convinced a portion of the rakyat into thinking that communists are evil,” he said.

The Hat Yai Peace Coalition comprises former signatories of the Hat Yai Peace Accord.

An agreement between the CPM with the governments of Malaysia and Thailand, the accord marked the end of the communist insurgency and led to the disbandment of the CPM. - Mkini