Shamsiah Fakeh

Shamsiah Fakeh (1924 – 20 October 2008) was a Malaysian nationalist and feminist. She was the leader of Angkatan Wanita Sedar (AWAS), Malaysia's first nationalist women organisation and a prominent Malay leader of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).

Shamsiah was born in the village of Kampung Gemuruh near the town of Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan. She had her early education in the Madrasah Aliah Islaiah (also known as the Islamic High School) in Pelangai, Negeri Sembilan and was later sent to the Madrasah Tuddimiah in Padang Panjang, Sumatera in what was then the Dutch East Indies. It was during this time that she came under the influence of Lebai Maadah, an influential scholar and Islamic reformer.

Shamsiah was married five times from the age of 17. Her first husband, Yasin Kina, abandoned her while she was pregnant with their second child and both children died in their infancy. Her second husband, J. M. Rusdi, was eventually discovered to be an informer for the Japanese forces then occupying Malaya.

She was also briefly married to Ahmad Boestamam, the leader of PKMM's youth wing, Angkatan Pemuda Insaf (Awakened Youth Organisation; API). In her memoirs, she claimed that her marriage broke with Boestamam broke down due to her disagreement with the latter's decision to pay a fine to avoid a jail sentence for publishing a book deemed seditious by government in 1947. Notably the marriage was never mentioned in any of Boestamam's memoirs and writings.

Her fourth husband, Wahi Anuwar, was a fellow CPM member who was captured by British and imprisoned. Shamsiah was told that he had surrendered and thought he was dead. He was, in fact, imprisoned for 15 years and eventually died in 1980.

Her final marriage was to another CPM member, Ibrahim Mohamad, in 1956. They remained married until his death in 2006.

As a fiery orator, Shamsiah was scouted by both the United Malays National Organisation and the Malay Nationalist Party (Malay: Partai Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya, PKMM), the main Malay political parties in the post-war period. She 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. In 1946, she was asked to lead PKMM's women's wing, Angkatan Wanita Sedar (Cohort of Awakened Women; AWAS).

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