Divergent Interpretations of Communism and Currents of Duplicity in Post-Cold War Sarawak

Abstract

According to the literature on the history of communism in Sarawak, Malaysia, it was the concerted effort of the government in educating the public of the danger within the state that led to the demise of the communist movements. In this article, I argue that the prevailing ideology of the progress of democracy against the evil of communism, on which a large portion of the scholarship on communism in Sarawak is based, needs to be re-examined. Moreover, even though there were several communist organizations in Sarawak, the competition and conflicts between them seemed to be de-emphasized by this literature. Working with former guerrillas from two communist organizations that had a history that was anything but amicable, this article offers divergent representations of episodes of communist activities in Sarawak. The article is also concerned with how the anthropologist’s working relations with these two groups of former guerrillas affected the interpretations of their representations of communism in Sarawak.