Chin Peng: Freedom fighter or foe
"If history is rewritten, he has a place in the country's struggle for independence"
Former Communist Party of Malaya secretary-general Chin Peng, 90, died Monday in Bangkok and remains a controversial figure in Malaysian history.
Some consider him a hero, others say he was an enemy of the state.
Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) National chairperson Dr Nasir Hashim said Monday that Chin Peng must be remembered as one of the pioneers in the struggle for independence as he fought against the colonial masters - first the Japanese and then the British.
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Chin Peng, a commentary from an armchair expert
There was a war of aggression in China conducted by the Japanese. Chin Peng fought under the Malayan People’s Anti Japanese Army. They were also part of Force 136 supported by and supporting the British. They were fighting on the side of the British when the Japanese invaded Malaya and Singapore. Up to this point Chin Peng and his men/women were on the right side of history, fighting an aggressor, the Japanese. He was a war hero and awarded the OBE by the British Empire. His men paraded at our Padang in a victory parade. His OBE was withdrawn when he took the side of the communist to fight an anti colonial war against the British.
Chin Peng was a good man turned bad for fighting the British. If one is a member of the British Empire, Chin Peng was bad. If one was anti colonialism, Chin Peng was a patriot.
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From London to Bangkok: A Comrade Remembers
Seeing Chin Peng's portly self in his later years, few would believe that this was the man who once waged a bloody Communist insurgency in the Malaysian peninsula. For years, he fought with his brothers-in-arms but was finally forced into exile in Thailand. Others who fought alongside him, both physically and ideologically, were similarly forced to flee into exile around the world.
In recent years, Chin Peng fought to return to Malaysia and was denied entry every single time. Such is the fate of a man who was at the losing end of history. Maybe it is in his honour that even his ashes wrecked such fear in the BN government that they were denied entry for the fear of reopening old wounds.
Now in his death, with his former comrades scattered all, tributes began to trickle in for a man they once revered and struggled alongside with. From distant London, a flower wreath sent by Tan Wah Piow, rekindled a long forgotten connection. In this dog eat dog capitalistic world that we live in now, such loyalty and sentimentality are a breath of fresh air. Self-exiled in the UK, constantly fighting for his innocence against the Singapore government's charge of being the mastermind behind the Marxist Conspiracy, he once stated vehemently in his book Let the People Judge that he was no communist.
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Final Farewell for CPM leader
Bangkok, 23 September 2013 – Close to 300 people turned up for the funeral of former Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) secretary-general, Chin Peng, to bid him a final farewell on Monday. Many travelled from afar just to attend the funeral, which was held at the Wat That Throng temple in Bangkok to show their respect to their former leader and comrade.
Chin Peng , born to the name of Ong Boon Hua, was the leader of the CPM, the party which was responsible for the emergency insurgency in Malaysia that lasted 12 years from 1948 to 1960.
Representatives from the villages and societies took their place in front of the coffin to pay their respect and to place a flower each on the altar of Chin Peng. A few of the attendees were weeping out loud as the farewell letter by Chin Peng was read out in both Bahasa Malaysia and in Chinese.
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Family denies Chin Peng's date of death was manipulated
The family of the late Chin Peng has refuted talk that the date of the former Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) secretary-general's death was manipulated to coincide with the Malaysia Day anniversary.
Lee Suvit, 62, insisted that Chin Peng was certified dead at 6.20am in a hospital in Bangkok on Sept 16. Lee, identified as a nephew of the late communist leader, said his sister was at Chin Peng's side when he breathed his last.
"We don't wish to respond to such lies but I can tell you for certain that my uncle (Chin Peng) died on the morning of Sept 16," Lee said to The Star on the third day of the wake proceedings here yesterday.
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Former Malaysian communist leader Chin Peng dies at age 88
The tough former communist guerrilla who led a bloody but failed insurgency against British rule in Malaysia in the late 1940s and early 1950s died in Bangkok on Monday after decades in exile. He was 88.
Chin Peng, whose real name was Ong Boon Hua, died of cancer in a private hospital, according to his former lawyer in Malaysia, Darshan Singh Khaira, and officials in Thailand. He adopted a pseudonym for his political work.
He was the last of a breed of Asian anti-colonialist figures that included Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh, Indonesia’s Sukarno, Myanmar’s Aung San and Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk, who died last year. Chin Peng’s dubious distinction was that unlike the others, he didn’t win his struggle.
Former Malayan communist chief Chin Peng dies
Chin Peng, former secretary-general of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), died at a hospital in Bangkok on Monday morning. He was 90 years old.
He died of old age and was pronounced dead at 6.20am, reports said.
His relatives will perform religious rites for him on Friday, Bangkok Post reported.
Vale, Mr Ong Boon Wah Alias “Chin Peng”
The infamous leader of the Malayan Communist Party and one-time most wanted public enemy of the British Far East died aged 90 in Bangkok, denied a request to die in his home town in Perak.
Appointed leader of the MCP at age 22, he first fought in a guerrilla resistance against the Japanese Occupation forces in WW2, and later against the British and against the independent federation of Malaysia.
His exploits are stuff of legend — successfully evading the might of the British armed forces for 12 years, slipping in and out of the jungle without so much as a scratch — attending truce talks looking as if he had just taken a taxi to a boardroom meeting, and when the talks failed, slinking back into the northern Malaysian forests and just bloody disappearing.
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Chin Peng never took up Malaysian citizenship, says IGP Khalid
Chin Peng was never a Malaysian citizen and there should be no reason for his remains to be brought back, said Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.
Chin Peng was never a Malaysian citizen and there should be no reason for his remains to be brought back, said Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.
"He never took up citizenship when he joined the CPM (Communist Party of Malaya)," Khalid told The Star Online when contacted for comments about the death.
"I believe he is happy to be buried where he spent his time the most," Khalid added.
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If Chin Peng the Communist terrorist had won, Lee Kuan Yew would have been a nobody
It is said that history is written by the victors. The British won the war against Chin Peng's Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) last century. So Tunku Abdul Rahman was installed as Malaysia's first PM. This weakened the Left leaning political parties in Singapore, including Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan and other Leftists. Which meant that LKY had an easy cakewalk towards Singapore's first premiership.
Had Chin Peng won, Tunku Abdul Rahman would have been a nobody. So would Lee Kuan Yew. Probably Suharto too. Chin Peng would have been Malaysia's PM, Chin Siong Singapore's PM and Sukarno (not Suharto) probably the longest serving PM in the history of Indonesia, maybe even SE Asia.
Chin Peng. He led a decade long war in Malaya against the Brits that caused 11,000 lives of which many were innocent civilians. A historical irony is marked on 16 Sep 2013. While Lee Kuan Yew celebrates his 90th birthday in pompous glory in Singapore, Chin Peng dies on the same day, with the fact that Malaysians nearly forget he was once a leader of a forceful and influential party, the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). Former communist leader Chin Peng dies in Bangkok, aged 88
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Lim Yew Hock, not LKY, paved the way for our independence
Lim Yew Hock, the man with the strong hand
This article discusses how it was Lim Yew Hock, who was the real brave man who softened the political ground that made way for Singapore's independence, against the backdrop of hardened hardcore Leftists who were bent on creating disorder, mayhem and havoc for the then ruling Brit govt.
It was this softening of the ground that led the Brits to give Singapore autonomy, which LKY gladly grabbed with both hands to be Singapore's first PM as autonomous Singapore.
The article also takes a look at how it was Tunku Abdul Rahman who cleared the path for LKY to continue to be PM of Singapore under merged Malaysia, by getting rid of LKY's biggest nemesis, Lim Chin Siong (see below).
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Lim Chin Siong
Lim Chin Siong (Chinese: 林清祥; pinyin: Lín Qīngxiáng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Tshinn-siông; 28 February 1933 – 5 February 1996) was an influential leftwing politician and trade union leader in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Telok Ayer Street, Lim studied first in Johor, before entering Singapore’s Catholic High School and The Chinese High School in 1949 and 1950 respectively. He was later expelled for engaging in subversive activities in the Anti-British League.
Lim’s influence in politics stemmed from his union work as a paid organiser of the Singapore Bus Workers Union and the Singapore Factory and Shop Workers Union. Together with his strength in Chinese oratory which was a critical factor for tapping the support of the Chinese-speaking masses.
Lim co-founded the People's Action Party (PAP) in 1954 with Lee Kuan Yew . His popularity rose rapidly and he became the leader of Chinese workers, trade unions and Chinese middle school students in the 1950s. He was slim, youthful, dedicated, and had a handsome boyish face. His oratory as a speaker in the Hokkien dialect, among the Chinese masses was legendary. In his political memoir The Singapore Story, Lee Kuan Yew offered deserved praise to Lim's "hypnotic" oratory:
Lim Chin Siong (Chinese: 林清祥; pinyin: Lín Qīngxiáng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Tshinn-siông; 28 February 1933 – 5 February 1996) was an influential leftwing politician and trade union leader in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Telok Ayer Street, Lim studied first in Johor, before entering Singapore’s Catholic High School and The Chinese High School in 1949 and 1950 respectively. He was later expelled for engaging in subversive activities in the Anti-British League.
Lim’s influence in politics stemmed from his union work as a paid organiser of the Singapore Bus Workers Union and the Singapore Factory and Shop Workers Union. Together with his strength in Chinese oratory which was a critical factor for tapping the support of the Chinese-speaking masses.
Lim co-founded the People's Action Party (PAP) in 1954 with Lee Kuan Yew . His popularity rose rapidly and he became the leader of Chinese workers, trade unions and Chinese middle school students in the 1950s. He was slim, youthful, dedicated, and had a handsome boyish face. His oratory as a speaker in the Hokkien dialect, among the Chinese masses was legendary. In his political memoir The Singapore Story, Lee Kuan Yew offered deserved praise to Lim's "hypnotic" oratory:
- "...a ringing voice that flowed beautifully in his native Hokkien. The girls adored him, especially those in the trade unions. Once he got going after a cold start at the first two meetings, there was tremendous applause every time he spoke. By the end of the campaign, Lim Chin Siong was seen as a charismatic figure and a person to be reckoned with in Singapore politics and, what was of more immediate concern, within the PAP."
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