The mission: track down members of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) in China, especially Shamsiah Fakeh, a member of the CPM’s 10th Regiment, which had all-Malay members.
Now 68, Jamaludin Hasan recalled that he spent four years in China studying that country’s modern economy at the People’s University of China, after enrolling at the Foreign Studies University (FSU) in Beijing.
While studying Mandarin there, he rubbed shoulders with several future leaders of China.
“Nobody knew I was in the army,” the retired major told FMT in an interview at his Putrajaya home recently.
“I was sent to track down elements of the 10th regiment of CPM in China.
“We needed to get first-hand information straight from the source instead of relying on second-hand information,” he said, referring to information from British intelligence as well as rumours and speculation about her from others.
It was at the FSU that he gleaned information about Shamsiah’s whereabouts which led him to her house in the Nansha district in Guangdong province.
According to Jamaludin, Shamsiah had briefly taught Malay at FSU and developed a good relationship with one Professor Wu who was fluent in Malay but who had never set foot in Malaysia.
“It was Wu who helped connect me to Shamsiah,” he said.
Shamsiah, whom he addressed as “ibu” (mother), was charismatic, well-read and religious.
She had been living in China since 1956, after she was sent there to extend her knowledge of communism as CPM required the Malay cadres to do, according to her memoirs.
Shamsiah told him she longed to return to Malaysia and was prepared to be imprisoned as the authorities were apparently afraid she could revive communism in the country.
“She missed Malaysia and her hometown, Kuala Pilah. She imagined sitting in front of her childhood home looking at the mangosteen and rambutan trees.
“She felt that Malaysia was where she belonged, not China. She had been fighting for Malaya’s independence from the British.”
The friendship Jamaludin struck with Shamsiah also allowed him to uncover some truths that belied allegations levelled at her, including one that claimed she headed the 10th regiment.
In her memoir, published in 2007, Shamsiah said she was sacked by the CPM following changes within the party that took place in 1968.
She was allowed to remain in China as they treated her as a guest and former anti-imperialist fighter. However, she had no passport after Malaya gained independence in 1957.
The communist insurgency came to an end after the government and CPM signed a peace agreement in Hat Yai in 1989.
Shamsiah said she had appealed to the Malaysian embassy in Beijing in 1985 to return to Malaysia but her effort was futile.
Jamaludin said his meeting with Shamsiah was instrumental as part of a process that led the government of then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to arrange for Shamsiah to return to Malaysia as a free citizen.
He claimed that as his task was deemed top secret he had to sign a 20-year agreement to keep mum about it. And he never told Shamsiah who he really was.
Shamsiah returned to Malaysia in 1994, the same year Jamaludin retired from the army. She died in 2008, aged 84.
On whether he felt conflicted having to befriend someone who was essentially his ‘enemy,’ Jamaludin said “not at all”.
He is, by his own admission, a guy “who finishes a job, then moves on to the next.”
Despite that Jamaludin remains captivated by Shamsiah who he felt was cabinet minister material. “She was very vocal, educated, and there was this fighting spirit in her voice.”