16 Facts About Shamsiah Fakeh

Shamsiah Fakeh was a Malaysian nationalist and feminist.

Shamsiah Fakeh was the leader of Angkatan Wanita Sedar, Malaysia's first nationalist women organisation and a prominent Malay leader of the Communist Party of Malaya.

Shamsiah Fakeh was the grandmother of Jamaliah Jamaluddin, Member of the Selangor State Executive Council and Member of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly for Bandar Utama.

Shamsiah Fakeh had her early education in the Madrasah Aliah Islaiah in Pelangai, Negeri Sembilan and was later sent to the Madrasah Tuddimiah in Padang Panjang, Sumatera in what was then the Dutch East Indies.

Shamsiah Fakeh was married five times from the age of 17.

Shamsiah Fakeh was briefly married to Ahmad Boestamam, the leader of PKMM's youth wing, Angkatan Pemuda Insaf.

Shamsiah Fakeh's fourth husband, Wahi Annuar, was a fellow CPM member who was captured by British and imprisoned.

Shamsiah Fakeh was told that he had surrendered and thought he was dead.

Shamsiah Fakeh was, in fact, imprisoned for 15 years and eventually died in 1980.

Shamsiah Fakeh eventually chose to join PKMM because she believed it was more dedicated to the struggle for Malaya's independence whereas she considered UMNO a puppet of the British.

Shamsiah Fakeh served as a Malay language consultant with Radio Beijing and the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute.

One of the conditions for the family's return was a bar on participation in politics and for the first few years upon their return, Shamsiah Fakeh was not even allowed to participate in academic speaking engagements.

Shamsiah Fakeh's memoirs were first published in 2004 by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia but was immediately suppressed by the authorities and withdrawn from circulation.

Shamsiah Fakeh died on 20 October 2008 at the residence of her son, Jamaluddin Ibrahim, due to respiratory failure and was buried at the Sungai Besi Muslim cemetery at 5.30pm of the same day.

In 1981, the defected chairman of the CPM, Musa Ahmad, claimed that Shamsiah Fakeh had committed infanticide by killing her third child while in the jungle to avoid capture.

Shamsiah Fakeh subsequently denied the allegation in her memoirs and explained that she was convinced by fellow guerillas to give the child away to local villagers to be raised upon entering an unfamiliar district.