1920: Man of Valour

Arwah Tan Sri Haji Dr Mubin Sheppard
Former historian and founder of the National Archives and National Museum
Appeared in the STAR, 2 August 2003

The story of a Malay Collegian, who chose the honourable path. This captain with the FMS Volunteer Force, was executed by the Japanese and whose body was never founded is recorded for posterity

Immediately after the fall of Singapore on Feb15, 1942, the British forces were assembled by the Japanese in two main groups; the Europeans and Australian troops, who numbered about 54,000 and the Asians.

The Europeans and Australian prisoners were marched from Raffles College grounds to Changi. The Asians, who were mainly Indian Army units, but included about 170 Malayan regulars and volunteers, were concentrated at the old race course at Farrer Park.

After camping out in the open for 24 hours, the Indian troop – numbering about 17,000 – were given their freedom on condition that they join the Indian National Army.

The remainder, made up of about 100 members of the Malay Regiment and about 70 Malays and five Chinese Volunteers, were placed under guard in the old race course grand stands: the Malay Regiment upstairs, the Malay and Chinese Volunteers in separate parts of the building on the ground floor.

All except one of the Volunteers were members of the Malacca or Penang Volunteers Corp (SSVB). The one exception was an officer from the Negeri Sembilan Battallion of the FMS Volunteers.

The solidarity FMS Volunteer Officer was Captain Raja Aman Shah, MCS, a member of the Perak Royal family, married to a daughter of the late Sultan of Kedah, and at the time of the Japanese invasion was a District Officer, Port Dickson.

Raja Aman Shah had held a Commission in the FMS Volunteer Force since 1929 and had served in the Perak and Negeri Sembilan battalions.

He had entered the Malay Administration Service after leaving the Malay College in 1920 and had been promoted to the MCS in 1936.

In his roles as administrator and a Volunteer officer, he had shown exceptional ability, and his quiet sincerity and accessibility had won him well-deserved affection among the communities.

When the FMS and the Straits Settlements Volunteers Forces were mobilized om Dec 1, 1941, he could have remained at his post in Port Dickson, but immediately applied to be released for military service and accompanied the Negeri Sembilan battalion to Port Swettenham for coastal defence duties. He rhen held the rank of Captain.

The Negeri Sembilan Battalion were ordered to with draw to Port Dickson on Jan 10, 1942. There, all members of the FMS Volunteer Force who had retired in the face of enemy pressure, from Perak, Pahang and Selangor, were assembled with the Volunteers of Negeri Sembilan and were given the option of either returning home or moving south to Malacca and Singapore.

Many Volunteers chose to be released, but Raja Aman Shah placed loyalty to his unit above personal considerations and he remained with the reduced force of two Volunteers companies and encouraged others to follow his example.

In the following month, Captain Raja Aman Shah and his company assisted with defence of South Johor and later held a section of the Singapore coastal defence line near Changi.

When the final Japanese assault was launched on the morning of Feb 15, 1942, the FMS Volunteers had been allotted a front line position near MacPherson Road.

Major Cock,am, the Company Commander was killed in action and Raja Aman took part in had-to-had fighting.

When the enemy was sighted, he took a rifle from a wounded NCO and fired it coolly until his trench was over-eun.

He was seen to dodge several attempts to bayonet him and how he escaped death in that desperate encounter is not known.

Twenty hours later, he made contact with a number of officers and men of the Malay Regiment and the Malacca Volunteers at Farrel Park. There he was detained as a prisoner of war until his death nearly two weeks later.

The officers whom he joined were Lt. Ariffin Hj. Sulaiman, Lt. Ibrahim Sidek and Lt. Abdul Wahab Judin, who held regular Commissions in the Maly Regiment; Lt Abbas Md Said of the Malacca Volunteers Corps and Lt. Yazid Ahmad of the Sultan Idris Training College Volunteer Unit, both of whom had been seconded to the Malay regiment; Lt. Abu Bakar Umar, who had served throughout the campaign with C Coy of the Malacca Volunteer Corps, 2nd Lt. Lim Cheng Hee of the Penang Volunteer Corps and 2nd. Lt. Yoon Choy of A Coy Malacca Volunteer Cor, bother of Singapore’s Health Minister Yong Nyuk Lin.

Raja Aman shared a large room on the ground floor with Lt. Abu Bakar and 25 Malay NCOs and men of the Malcca Volunteers.

The Japanese gave the Volunteers no food. Fortunately the men of the Malay Regiment had brought a stock of rice and a sall quantity of dry rations with them to Farrer Park and, at the request of Raja Aman Shah, they gave the Volunteerss a portion of their rice supply; otherwise they might have starved.

Thin liquid solutions of salt and pounded chillies were the only flavouring available. The piped water supply was polluted and irregular. It tasted and smelt of decomposed flesh, but the prisoners had no alternative but to boil and drink it. No sugar, tea or sugar was available.

Japanese officers came to question and brainwash the Malay officers almost daily and, on more than one occasion, a man named Ibrahim Ya’akob accompanied them, wearing a Japanese uniform and sword, and an armband with the letter F. (Fujiwara) prominently displayed.

Rumours of the impeding execution of all the prisoners at raffer Park grew stronger with each passing day. The unexpected arrival, about a week after the fall of Singapore, of a tall Malay in civilian clothes, accompanied by Ibrahim Ya’akob, therefore aroused intense speculation.

Words was quickly passed around that the visitor has come to see Raja Aman Shah, and that he carried a Japanese document of release. But it was not known whether this would benefit Raja Aman Shah alone or if it would include his companions. A discussion was held at the entrance.

Raja Aman Shah was seen to turn in the direction of his comrades in arms and to point towards them. Ibrahim Ya’akob seemed to ignore the gesture.

The conversation appeared to be cut short by the departure of Ibrahim to his cat, followed by the reluctant figure of the tall civilian and they drove away, leaving Raja Aman Shah standing in silence. The Japanese temporarily accommodating and allowed Lt. Abu Bakar and several other Volunteers to go out and join him.

“That was my brother,” explained Raja Aman Shah. “He brought a Japanese permit for me to go back to Perak with him. I wanted you all to be freed with me, but this was not allowed. So I decided to stay and see this through with you. If God wills, we shall be freed; if not, let us die together.”

Then, after a sigh, Raja Aman continued: “My brother has gone to look for food. I told him we were very hungry.”

Everyone was talking about Raja Aman Shah’s decision.

Its psychological impact was heightened by the conditions in which they were living. Degrading, humiliating, defiling conditions, where the finer virtues and standards seemed to find no place. When time could only be estimated by the sun and mo one had a spare shirt or pair of trousers to change into, because their watches and everything else they possessed had been taken from them by the guards and there was insufficient ware for them to bathe or to flush the latrines.

To stay, voluntarily, in such surroundings, when offered a seat in a motor car and safe passage back to Perak – they would not have thought it possible an hour earlier, and now the man who had made the decision sat unconcerned, in his usual space on the cement floor, waiting for his brother to return with some food.

Tinned meat and fish was at a premium in Singapore, and could not be bought in the open market, but a friend of Raja Aman’s family knew a stock pile and an hour later 27 Volunteers were in possession of the only protein they were to consume during heir stay at Farrer Park – two crates of sardines.

Dates, no less than hours, were difficult to determine. One day followed another in monotonous misery. But about 10 days after the fall of Singapore the total number of prisoners in the grand stand was substantially increased.

Acting on the advice of Ibrahim Ya’akob, the Japanese had issued a proclamation calling on all Asian members of the armed forces whose homes were on the mainland to report themselves to certain police stations so that they could be sent home.

Those who followed these instructions numbered more than 100 men, some from the Malay Regiment, some non-Malay of the Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery, and a few from the Malacca Volunteer Corps.

Among the latter was Lt. Dato Othman Dato Naning, an officer in the Machine Gun company, and the only Ruling Chief in Malacca territory.

Japanese officers accompanied by Ibrahim Ya’akob continued to visit the prisoners; it is probable that the Japanese were influnced by Ibrahim.

This presumption is based on a boasting statement, made by Ibrahim himself, late in February 1942, when he rebuked a Malay District Officer on the mainland for failing to pay him the respect which he considered to be due to him. “Don’t you know,” he threatened, “ that I have the lives of other Malay district officers like Raja Aman Shah, in my grasp.”

On the morning of Feb 28, all the prisoners were ordered to fall in on the grass in front of the old grand stand to listen to a speech from a visiting Japanese officer. The main theme was that they were now subjects of the Japanese and had to obey their new masters.

As soon as the officer had driven away, the guard commander ordered his prisoners to go back to their rooms, collect any articles which they might still possess, and fall in again, ready to move in half an hour.

More than 300 men marched from Farrer Park to Geylang, a distance of over seven miles (11.2km). On arrival, they were ordered to sit down in the open, on a stretch of sandy grounds, encircled by armed guards.

All the Malay Officers were segregated in a space in the centre of the open ground; all the Chinese Volunteers, both officers and men, soon joined them, followed by all the members of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers.

The other ranks of the Malay Regiment and the Malay NCOs and men of the Malacca Volunteer Corps were marched away to an English School in Katong where they spent the night. They were released the following day, each with a Japanese pass authorizing them to return home.

The officers and men who remained at Geylang numbered about 90. When darkness began to fall, they were pushed into three lorries, with their hands tied behind them, and driven to Bedok. Crowded together in slit trenches, they were shot at close range.

The bodies of Captain Aman Shah and his brother officers and comrades-in-arms were left where they fell. No attempt was ever made to accoed them a formal burial. In the month following his secret execution, Raja Aman Shah’s brother, and his brother-in-law, Tunku Abdul Rahman (who became the first Prime Minister), visited Singapore to try to rescue him, but the Japanese refused to divulge his whereabouts, and his fate remained a mystery until long after the end of war.

Those who perform acts of gallantry under fire, or who save the lives of their wounded comrades in the heat of battle are rightly admired and decorated.

But how much higher and rarer is the standard of courage which inspires a man to reject an offer of freedom in the squalid, unemotional surroundings of a war prisoner’s place of detention, and which causes him to place loyalty to his imprisoned comrades-in-arms in the face of imminent execution, above all personal considerations.

This courage led Captain Raja Aman Shah, a product of the Malay College, to stay with his comrades-in-arms. Such valour is beyond praise, and it should never be forgotten. Captain Raja Aman Shah was after all taught to be as a team player