Table Of ContentIssues in Southeast Asian Security
ARMED COMMUNIST MOVEMENTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
INSTITUTE OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES
Hong Mui Kong Terrace, Singapore 0511
as
Established an autonomous organisation by an Act of
Parliament Bt" the Republic of Singapore in May
.
the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies is a regional re-
search centre for scholars and other specialists concerned
with modern Southeast Asia. The Institute's research interest
is focused on the many-faceted problems of development
and social change in Southeast Asia.
The Institute is governed by a twenty-two member Board
of Trustees comprising representatives from the National
University of Singapore, appointees from the government,
as well as representatives from a broad range of professional
and civic anisations and groups. A ten-man Executive
Committee &versees day-to-day operations, it is chaired by
the Director, the Institute's chief academic and administrat-
ive officer.
Armed Communist Movements
in Southeast J
_.
Edited by
LIM JOO-JOCK
m
VAN! S.
Issued under the auspices of the
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
Gower
© 1984 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
First published 1984
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, ansmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic; mechanical, photocopying, recording or other-
wise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies.
Published by
Gower Publishing Company Limited
Gower House
Croft Road
Aldershot
Hampshire GUI 1 3HR
England
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Armed Communist movements in Southeast Asia
-(Issues in Southeast Asian Security)
1. Communism-Asia 2. Asia, Southeastern-Politics
I. Lim, Joo-Jock II. Vani, S. III. Series
322.4'2'0959 DS518.1
ISBN 0 566 00698 7
Contents
Foreword vii
Ker rial S. Sandhog
Introduction xi
Lim Joo-Jock with Vani S.
PART I INDONESIA I
Armed communism in Indonesia: Its history and
future 3
Dorodj stun Kuntjoro-Jakti
Phoenix supine: The Indonesian Communist Party
and armed struggle 29
Donald E. Weatherbee
-
Comments 46
PART II MALAYSIA 49
Violence at the periphery: A brief survey of armed
communism in Malaysia S1
Zacharia Hajj Ahmad and Zacharia Hamid
Comments 66
V
_
PART III PHILIPPINES 69
Rectification process in the Philippine communist
movement 71
Francisco Nemenzo
Comments 102
PART IV SINGAPORE 107
The communist open united front in Singapore,
1954-66 109
Lee Ting Hui
Comments 128
v
PART THAILAND 131
The revolutionary strategy of the Communist Party
of Thailand: Change and persistence 133
Kanok Wongtrangan
Comments 183
CONCLUDING COMMENTS 187
Chandran Jeshurun
Index 199
to
Foreword
The well-being of Southeast Asia is inextricably linked with the chang-
mg forces and circumstances determining regional and international
'
politics and security. The Great Power interests and the various 'checks
and balances' that govern overall international security, as well as
the factors that affect regional stability, are even at the best of times
in a state of flux, if not actually ridden with uncertainty. Analysis
of such developments has largely been either on a global basis, and
undertaken primarily outside the region, or limited to localised,
national, operational research carried out by government ministries
and associated organisations. Yet at a time when security considera-
tions -- not merely of a military nature - in the Southeast Asian
region are becoming more pressing than ever, much of the expertise
.
on security issues is located in the developed world
It was considered, therefore, that there was an urgent need (1) to
supplement global concepts and methods of analysis with a closer
understanding of the actual realities in the region; (2) to ensure that
much of this is done in the region and with as much input as possible
by Southeast Asians themselves, thereby leading to the creation of a
body of expertise on security issues resident in the region, and (3) to
ensure that, in terms of Southeast Asian participation, there would
be greater involvement of the different strands of Southeast Asian
opinion and expertise, including not only government and military
personnel, ,ac the academic community, mass media and, as
'
" opportunity aarises, the business and commercial sectors. The
eventual objective is to encourage, in the region, constant study and
vii
monitoring of the various security issues and developments affecting
the area, as well as to educate the general public about security issues
through discussions/seminars and publications.
Accordingly, a group of Southeast `Asians came together to design
and establish a Regional Strategic Studies Programme (RSSP) to be
based at the Institute under the overall charge of its Director, Professor
K.S. Sandhu, with Dr Chai-Anan Samudavanija of Chulalongkorn
University as the Programme Planner, Mr Lim Joo-Jock of ISEAS as
Programme Co-ordinator, and Miss Vani Shanmugaratnarn as Pro-
gramme Research Associate. It was generally agreed that the initial
focus of the Programme should, though not exclusively, be the socio-
economic issues affecting regional security with particular reference to
the internal sources of instability in the various Southeast Asian coun-
tries. The selection of the first group of core areas for investigation
under the Programme included the changing strategies and tactics of
armed Marxist-Leninist and other (for example, separatist) movements
in Southeast Asia; religious militancy and fundamentalism in the region,
the "coup" as a recurrent feature in Southeast Asia, and ethnic minority
tensions and demands in the region.
It was platted, J the cluster of issues relating to each core
area should be covered in a series of specific projects and studied as
distinct phases, or projects, of the Programme. These projects would
be spread over a period of time and would cover the nature, bases,
emergence and persistence of the various phenomena in each core
area. The underlying assumption in all this research is that regional
security cannot be attained until regional and national instability is
eradicated.
The first phase of the Programme concerned the nature and bases
of revolutionary, radical resistance, separatist and Mar1dst~Leninist
movements in Southeast Asia and their implications for regional
security.
The first project in this phase involved research into the problem
of armed communism in non-communist Southeast Asia. It focused
on the issues underlying Communist Party grievances, its political
platforms, changes in strategies and tactics, change, if any, in ideo-
logical stance, attitudes towards foreign communist parties, and so
forth. The drafts of the papers were completed in November and
presented at a workshop in Singapore on 17-19 November 1982.
The papers stimulated considerable interest and discussion among
the participants, who included academics as well as professionals from
relevant government and related organisations. It is these papers and
the brief summaries of the main discussion centred around each of
them, together with the concluding comments that form the basis
of this volume, the inaugural number of the Programme's new annual
series, Issues in Southeast Asian Security.
viii
The second project focuses on the endemic problem of violent
separatist movements in Southeast Asia, and it.is now under prepara-
tion. While not neglecting the link with ideology, it will examine
the following factors in some detail: ethnicity, language, religion,
the economic basis for dissent, including all the implications of develop-
ment, and external involvement, in particular the legacy of colonialism
and the Japanese Occupation. For this purpose a series of papers by
researchers from both within and outside the region will be discussed
M workshop scheduled for December 1983. As in the case of the
Workshop on Armed Communism in Southeast Asia, those presenting
papers will be joined by academics and government officials in order
that a more thorough discussion and interaction can take place. All
the papers will be edited and published as the second number in the
.
series, Issues in Southeast Asian Security
The regional Strategic Studies Programme has benefited immensely
from the co-operation it has received from colleagues within and
outside the region, and from the financial support provided by the
Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, in the form of two separate but
linked grants of US$50,000 and USS30,000 respectively, for a period
of eighteen months each. These grants are currently being reviewed
both for a possible time extension and for a significant increase in
the funding involved. The Institute in the meantime would like to
record its appreciation of all the assistance and support received to
date, and to express the wish that the various numbers of Issues in
Southeast Asian Security will circulate widely amongst all concerned
with problems of stability and security in the region. Responsibility
for facts and opinions expressed in the work that follows rests ex-
clusively with the individual authors, and their interpretations do not
necessarily reflect the views or policy of .the Institute or its supporters.
May 1983 Ker rial S. Sandhu
Director
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
ix
