The reason that it took so long for me to open this book was due to the fact that this is a real thick book. To be honest, it needs courage to go through a book with more than 500 pages. Furthermore, this is a story that we as Malaysian had more or less heard about it. The worst part is... we had been forced to memorize it for our examinations in secondary school, LOL. So, I choose to open it now as I think I am in the best condition and best stamina to finish this "marathon read". Please do not get me wrong. I love history. All history books are like real gems to me. However, I am reluctant to read something that I think I am quite familiar with...
Ended up... this book surprised me a lot. I assumed I know a lot of CPM histories. Yet, this book opened up and widened my knowledge on local histories. I was grateful that I took the courage to start it in the first place. Overall, this is a highly readable book. The best part is... the late Chin Peng tells the whole story from his side's perspective. As such, we have a much needed balance analyse compare to our standard history text book.
This book is full of deception, betrayal, terror and intrigue facts. The betrayal part by Lai Te, who was a "triple agent" was an amazing stories to follow though. Then, we have important insights on all guerrilla war in general and the struggle for national liberation in the colonial world. Of course, there are a lot of controversial parts. Chin Peng actually awarded the OBE by the same enemy that eventually haunted him for the most part of his life. Then, the Baling talk... it was supposed to ended in a peaceful way. But, the first Chief Minister of Singapore seems to be the major stumbling block behind the scene. Lastly, we had "Emergency" facts, which was rather different from our standard history books. Again, I want to emphasize that readers need some balance facts especially from the other side. This book obviously achieved that!
After spending whole month reading this book, I have no hesitation to rate this book at 9/10. The one point deducted was due to the error by publisher. The book was wrongly printed at the last chapter. In fact, it was not only wrongly printed in sequence. Few pages were missing for no reason. This is the fifth reprint version. By right, it should not have this sort of mistake!
As a conclusion, I rated this book highly and I am glad that I spent the whole month reading this book. This book not only opens up my mind. In fact, I found a lot of lessons especially on the correct means of struggle against the capitalism in my beloved country. At the end, I salute the late Chin Peng. Despite his bitter pill of ultimate defeat, this is a strong man that heroically fought against British and keeps his faith with perseverance. Rest in peace to the late Chin Peng...
