Salina Christmas

This is a story about two opposing factions who are desperately seeking peace, and the ghosts that stand in the way.

A Request For Betrayal is the sequel to The Keeper of My Kin. The first novel tells us how things come undone in the 1940s, and of the struggle the protagonists face in keeping the demons under control during the ensuing Emergency Period of the 1950s.

The second novel is about putting the genie back in the bottle. It doesn’t happen exactly like that but that’s the gist of the sequel which takes place during the Konfrontasi period. It was a three-year period in which President Sukarno of Indonesia told the newly formed Malaysia to get stuffed, and things got a bit sour for a short while.

In despair lies hope

The main inspiration behind A Request For Betrayal is the tenacity of those during this period who were hell-bent on achieving peace. Lives were lost, and yet, they hoped. They hoped for the best. The Keeper of My Kin gives you plots and intrigue. A Request For Betrayal lets you in on the characters on all sides of the warring factions: the Javanese of Malaya; the Indonesians; the Malaysians; the Communist insurgents; the former Japanese conscript, and the Commonwealth soldiers.

The main inspiration behind A Request For Betrayal is the tenacity of those during this period who were hell-bent on achieving peace. Lives were lost, and yet, they hoped.

I am Javanese – or rather, a quarter. My father and I are proud of our heritage. But there was a time during the 1960s when my people had to prove their loyalty to their country. And they did. My father was one of the Malaysian soldiers who was sent to the frontline in Singapore and in Sabah, Borneo, during the Konfrontasi period. It wasn’t until recently that he told me how he grappled with the duality of his ethnicity and national identity. I didn’t know until this year of his true feeling when face-to-face with his ‘enemies’ the Indonesians, who were also Javanese like him.

It’s his story that inspires the title, A Request For Betrayal.

Your enemy is your teacher

The sequel also reveals the unlikely affinity that Yamashiro Ryu, or Arshad, has with Tiger-Man, the Raden family’s most fearsome servant featured in The Keeper of My Kin. In this sequel, Yamashiro lives a quiet life as a local man in Malacca. His idyllic life, however, is temporarily shattered when the were-tiger returns to warn him of an imminent danger. And that’s how the story begins.

Like other wartime horror fiction, a lot of research went into A Request For Betrayal. I developed the plot immediately after I finished writing The Tiger-Man and His Constant Companion. There is a hint of Yamashiro in the follow-up, The Night of the Flying Blades, but you get to understand him fully by this second novel.

Historical inspiration

I discovered some historical gems whilst researching the background for the book:

The Indonesian and Malaysian sides wanted to end the conflict sooner

Unbeknownst to President Sukarno, one of his generals, Ahmad Yani, had a secret meeting behind his back with ‘the enemy’, Ghazali Shafie. The latter was the Malaysian Foreign Secretary and also the country’s head of espionage. They intended to put an end to the Konfrontasi. Yani, a man of integrity, remained loyal to President Sukarno. But it was the perceived betrayal and wrongful accusations that led to the bloody coup on 1 October 1965. Yani’s courage had cost him his life, to the horror of the Indonesians and the Malaysians.

Japan and Southeast Asia set the stage for the secret peace talks

One of the secret peace talks carried out to seek an end to the Konfrontasi took place at a Japanese restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. The peace talks were so discreet that the Malaysians didn’t even inform their Commonwealth allies about them. We know about the initial peace talk that took place in Tokyo, Japan, in 1964, but not many know about the clandestine meetings that took place afterwards at various sites across the region.

The peace accord was struck in utmost secrecy

Everyone knows the confrontation between Malaysia and Indonesia began in 1963 and ended in 1966. Everyone knows about the failed coup of 1 October 1965, the subject of films like The Year of Living Dangerously. But not many know exactly how the Indonesians and Malaysians ended the conflict. You’d be surprised. Unless you can read in Indonesian or Malay, and are into Asian diplomacy and modern history, it’s hard to get the full picture. But you’ll have a good idea when reading A Request For Betrayal. Under poetic licence, I take the liberty to fictionalise a lot of things. My story isn’t a history lesson. It’s a fantasy horror fiction.

A Kiwi infantry regiment was established during the Konfrontasi

The 1^st Battalion of the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment was formed in 1964 in Malaysia at the height of the confrontation. It was one of the Commonwealth regiments under Operation Claret. Commonwealth soldiers were put under the temporary command of the Malaysian troops, for instance the Royal Malaysian Navy, for the duration of the conflict.

The Kalabakan massacre of 1963

One of the eight Malaysian soldiers who died during the ambush at Kalabakan, Tawau, in Sabah, was my father’s close friend.

Writing the second paperback has been quite a journey. It’s been enjoyable, and I hope you get the same level of enjoyment when reading A Request For Betrayal.

Peace out.