Chin Peng
From Freepedia
Chin Peng (Traditional Chinese: 陳平, Simplified Chinese: 陈平, Mandarin Chen Peng) (born 1924), was born Ong Boon Hua (Mandarin: Wang Yonghua or Wang Wenhua Chinese: 王文華) in Sitiawan, and was a long-time leader of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP). He rose to prominence during World War II when many ethnic Chinese residents of Malaya took to the jungle to fight a guerilla war against the Japanese. These fighters, inspired by the example of the Chinese Communist Party, became known as the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA). Chin Peng was the liaison officer between the MPAJA and the British Lord Mountbatten, the leader of the British South-East Asian Command (SEAC). In the course of the War he was awarded an OBE and two campaign medals by Britain. He was elected the Secretary General of the Malayan Communist Party after the betrayal of previous leader Loi Tek who had 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 was exiled from Malaya during the Malayan Emergency from 1948 and remains so until this day. He was a firm anti-colonialist who opposed the British rule of Malaya but wish to rule under Malayan Communist Party. That is the reason, he continue his struggle even after Malaysia achieved independence.
Recently, he has applied to be permitted back into Malaysia, and a complex legal issue arises out of this. His hearing whether to permit him or not was scheduled to occur on May 25, 2005 but the High Court postponed the hearing to July 25.
His return is opposed by surviving members of Malayan Communist Party victim, those who previously served in armed force against him, and members of the public. There have been a resurgence of account of Malayan Communist Party autrocity in news paper by those who against his return to Malaysia.
Chin Peng has given lectures in the National University of Singapore (NUS) during his exile.
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The Emergency
There exists a certain amount of controversy whether he was responsible for the deaths of civilians and colonialists, marked when members of the Malayan Communist Party killed three pro-British civilians in 1948 in Sungei Siput. Many Singaporean historians and anticommunists allege that Chin Peng knew about and ordered the killings, although there is a degree of dissent over this. Some argue that Chin Peng was forty kilometres south and was at a fellow party member's bungalow, and was ignorant of the incident. In his book, written many years later and after the defeat of the MCP, Chin Peng states clearly that he did not order the attacks. In any event Chin Peng was the leader of the Party and the killers operated under his orders and through his inspiration. The MPAJA had spent most of the war killing ethnic Chinese who collaborated with the Japanese rather than actual Japanese soldiers, so it is clear that this was similar to their past behaviour. Inevitably, the killings forced the Malayan colonial administration to declare a state of emergency. This also provoked an immediate crackdown on the Malayan Communist Party, when British troops raided his house. Chin Peng managed to escape, but did lost various key documents, including his passport in the process. Unsure of the status of the rest of the party, he eventually learned that that his comrade Ah Hai was hiding in Ipoh, and devised a scheme with his sister, disguised as a couple on a reunion, such that he managed to re-establish a secret base there. From then on, the Malayan Communist Party became an underground insurgency resisting British suppression of the movement.
This initial resistance by the Malayan Communist Party eventually erupted into full hostility, and developed into a form of a civil war, which which became the Malayan Emergency that lasted for twelve years until 1960. In 1960 Chin Peng wished to give up the armed struggle, but, after travelling to China, was told by Deng Xiaoping that South-East Asia was ripe for Revolution. The MCP maintained a theoretical armed struggle for decades after. The death toll eventually climbed into the thousands. Those sympathetic to Chin Peng tend to portray the violence perpetrated by the MCP as defensive and reactionary, while right-wing opponents tend to portray it as aggressive and unethical. During the Cultural Revolution the MCP was split into three factions and Chin Peng ordered purges resulting in mass trials and many summary executions.
Chronology
- October 22, 1924: birth.
- January 1940: Accepted as probationary member of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM); put in charge of communist members in Sitiawan.
- July 4, 1940: Leaves home.
- December 1941: Communists’ offer of help accepted; joins the fight against the Japanese.
- January 10 1942: The first batch of the Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA).
- 1942: Meets future wife, Khoon Wah.
- 1945: World War II ends.
- January 1946: Awarded 2 war medals; boycotts tour of British bases; forced to sign letter of apology.
- Mid-October 1946: In Penang, Yeung Kuo reveals that Lai Teck has betrayed the CPM; Lai Teck subsequently absconds with most of party’s money.
- March 6, 1947: Truth is revealed about Lai Teck; he is killed. Chin Peng made secretary-general of CPM
- 1948: Three planters killed at Sungei Siput; Emergency declared; CPM declared illegal.
- Late 1950: Briggs arrives in Malaya and implements "Brigg's plan" – resettling people into "New Villages". If the people refused to move, the British would burn down their house. This made it difficult for the communists to gain food supplies from the "Min Yuen", their supporters in the villages.
- October 6, 1951: Sir Henry Gurney, British High Commissioner in Malaya, is assassinated on Gap road by Siew Ma.
- February 7, 1952: Sir Gerald Templer arrives to take the place of Gurney, and implements harsh measures against communists.
- December 28, 1955: Baling talks held with Marshall and Tunku, unsuccessful because of surrender terms. After Baling talks, Chin Peng flees to Thailand. Ah Hai replaces him as acting Secretary-General in Malaya.
- 1960: The Emergency is declared over. However, fighting still continues.
- December 2, 1989: A peace treaty is signed between the communists, Thailand and Malaysia. The long, hard war the British had preferred to term an emergency was over.
- October 6-8, 2004: Chin Peng visits Singapore for 3 days to speak at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies (ISEAS).
- 2005: Chin Peng is pending to return to Malaysia. His hearing was scheduled for May 25, 2005, and the High Court postponed it to July 25, 2005. This application was subsequently rejected.
Bibliography
- My Side of History (2003) ISBN 9810486936
External links
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