CHIN PENG
(From
Wikipedia)
Chin Peng, former
OBE, 陈平 (born 1924), was born
Ong Boon Hua (
王文華) in
Sitiawan, and was a long-time leader of the Malayan Communist Party (
MCP).
Early years:
Chin Peng was born in late October, 1924, into a middle class Hokchia (Mandarin: Fuqing) family in the small seaside town of Sitiawan, in Perak state, Malaya. His father had come to the town in 1920 and started a bicycle, tyre, and spare motor parts business with the help of a relative from Singapore. He attended a Chinese-language school in Sitiawan. In 1937 he joined the Chinese Anti Enemy Backing Up Society (AEBUS), formed that year to send aid to China in response to Japan's aggression against that country. According to Chin and Hack, he was not yet at that time a devoted communist. He was in charge of anti-Japanese activities at his school. Initially a supporter of Sun Yat-sen, by early 1939 he had embraced communism. He planned to go to Yan'an, the renowned Communist base in China, but was persuaded to remain in Malaya and take on heavier responsibilities for the Party there.
In late 1939, by which time Chin Peng had completed his study up to Senior Middle One, his school announced that the Senior Middle section was to be closed due to lack of money. He chose to continue his education in the Methodist-run Anglo-Chinese Continuation School, which operated in English, because it provided a good cover for his underground activities and because it was local so he would not have to move to Singapore for schooling. However after six months he left the school "for fear of British harassment". Once out of school, he concentrated on his political activities, and became, from that point on, a full time revolutionary. In January 1940 he had been put in charge of three anti-Japanese organisations that had a scope beyond the schools; they were for students, teachers, other cultural members, and shop assistants. At the end of January, 1940, he was admitted to the Malayan Communist Party as a candidate member.
Harassment by the authorities led him to leave his home town for Kuala Kangsar in July 1940. (This may be the same movement as his leaving school, referred to above.) Later he spent a month in Taiping. In September 1940 the party posted him to Ipoh as Standing Committee Member for Perak. In December he attained full Party membership.
In early 1941 AEBUS was dissolved. Chin Peng became Ipoh District Committee Member of the Party. "He led student underground cells of three Chinese secondary schools and the Party's organisations of the shop assistants, domestic servants of European families, workers at brick kilns and barbers." In June 1941 he became a member of the Perak State Committee.
Rise to prominence:
Chin Peng rose to prominence during World War II when many Chinese Malayans took to the jungle to fight a guerrilla war against the Japanese. These fighters, inspired by the example of the Communist Party of China, became known as the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA). Chin Peng became the liaison officer between the MPAJA and the British military in South-East Asia.
The Japanese invasion of Malaya began in December 1941. In 1942 Chin Peng was the junior of three members of the Secretariat of the Perak State Committee: Su Yew Meng was secretary, and Chang Meng Ching (Mandarin: Zhang Ming Jin) was the other member. In early 1943 the two senior members were captured by the Japanese, which left Chin Peng in charge. Contact with the Party's Central Committee had been lost; he attempted to re-establish it, travelling to Kuala Lumpur and meeting Chai Ker Meng. Later Lai Tek, the Party leader, sent another Central Committee member, Lee Siow Peng (Siao Ping), to replace Chin Peng as State Secretary. However, Lee Siow Peng was captured not long after, while travelling to a meeting that was to be held in Singapore. It was thus that the job of establishing contact with the British commando Force 136 fell to Chin Peng. The first party of that force, consisting of Capt. John Davis and five Chinese agents, had been landed in Malaya on 24 May 1943, by submarine. Chin Peng made contact with this armed group on 30 September 1943. He was active in his support for the British stay-behind troops, but had no illusions about their failure to protect Malaya against the Japanese. In the course of this activity, he came into contact with Freddie Spencer Chapman, who called him a 'true friend' in his Malayan jungle memoir, 'The Jungle Is Neutral'.
In the course of the war, Chin Peng was awarded an OBE(subsequently withdrawn by the British government), a mention in despatches, and two campaign medals,by Britain. He was elected the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Malaya after the betrayal of previous leader Lai Tek who turned out to be an agent for both the British and the Japanese and had denounced the leadership of the Party to the Japanese secret police. Chin Peng was the most senior surviving member.
He gained notoriety for being the leader of the MCP armed insurgency, which led to a large number of civilian casualties. Some have claimed this was in contrast to the stance adopted by Mao Zedong and his policy of the Eight Points of Attention to avoid civilian casualties. He withdrew to southern Thailand with the remnants of his forces during the latter part of the Emergency as a result of security force pressure and at the end of 1960 moved to Beijing, which became his base for many years. He was thus effectively exiled from Malaya and remains so until this day. He was a firm anti-colonialist who opposed the British rule of Malaya, but wished to create a Communist dictatorship under the Malayan Communist Party. For that reason he continued the struggle even after Malaysia achieved independence.
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(
Wikipedia)
All the World's a Stage
