Chin Peng Dies - End To A Wasted Life

Chin Peng dies in Bangkok

Former hand picked British stooge Chin Peng died in Bangkok today, Thai newspaper Bangkok Post reported. He would have turned 90 this October 21.

Chin Peng led the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) for seven years only from 1948 to 1955.  His mostly Chinese guerrillas fought against British and Commonwealth forces to establish a satellite Chinese Communist state in the then Malaya.

Chin Peng, whose real name was Ong Boon Hua, ran away from Malaya to Thailand in 1955. He was 34 years old at that time. When he ran away from Malaya he was replaced as the Secretary general of the CPM by one Ah Hai. Chin Peng was no more the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Malaya since 1955.

He lived in the jungles in Thailand until 1960. In 1960 he left Thailand and ran away to China and lived in Beijing until the 1980s.  

The MCP signed a peace agreement in Haadyai with the Thai and Malaysian Governments in 1989 to end hostilities.   The Haadyai Agreement was inked on December 2, 1989 by CPM leaders and senior government officials representing Malaysia and Thailand and signalled the end of the decades-long jungle war in the two countries.  

Until 1948 the leader of the Communist Party of Malaya was Loi Tek. Here is something I wrote in 2008 about Loi Tek and the Communist Party of Malaya. I titled it 'Chin Peng - A Wasted Life'  :

"The first Secretary General of the Communist Party of Malaya was one Loi Tek (an ethnic Vietnamese - so how was he a freedom fighter in Malaya) who was a British Agent. 

Lai Tek @ Loi Tek @ Lai Te @ Wright @ Nguyen Van Long @ Chan Hong aged about 38, had been a French agent in Vietnam but was arrested by the French. 

Then he was “sent” by the French to the British in Hong Kong where Loi Tek became a British agent, helping the British smoke out Communist labour unions in the Hong Kong docks. Until his disappearance in 1947 Loi Tek could not speak a word of Malay.

In the late 1930s, the Brits “sent” Loi Tek to Singapore and handled him when he organised the port workers' unions in Singapore. Since Loi Tek had frends in the COMINTERN, the Brits were fully informed of the COMINTERN’s decision about that time to set up Communist insurrections around South East Asia.

Loi Tek was then co-opted by the British when he organised the Communist Party of Malaya on Comintern instructions. From day one, the British knew the inside out of the CPM.

During the Japanese occupation of Malaya, Loi Tek remained behind in Malaya and became an agent of the Kempeitai. Loi Tek had free access to travel during the Japanese occupation.

When the Japs invaded Malaya in 1941, Chin Peng was 17 years old. (Chin Peng was born on October 21, 1924). Before the Japanese invasion, he wanted to go to China and join Mao Tse Tung to fight the Japanese there. But since the Japs came here to Malaya, the fight came to Chin Peng. So he did not have to go to China.

When the Japs invaded Malaya, Chin Peng started going underground. Even at this time Chin Peng was NOT a member of the Communist Party of Malaya. He was a member of Mao Tse Tung’s Anti Enemy Backing Up Society, HQ in China - whose No 1 enemy was Japan - not the Brits.

At this time Chin Peng had no idea that someday in the future, anyone would be saying that he was a freedom fighter for Malaya! Chin Peng had no idea about the CPM. He did not know what it was.

Chin Peng had joined Mao Tse Tung’s Anti-Enemy Backing Up Society (AEBUS) and NOT the Communist Party of Malaya. The AEBUS later evolved into the Min Yuen.

In 1943 the British sent in Spencer Chapman and a few other agents to organise resistance AMONGST THE MALAYAN CHINESE against the Japanese. Two vehicles were chosen FOR THE MALAYAN CHINESE ie the Communist Party of Malaya for the Communists and the Kuomintang for the Chiang Kai Shek supporters. By this time Chin Peng was a member of the anti Japanese Forces, later to be known as the Malayan People's Anti Japanese Army or MPAJA.

The Malayan chapter of the Kuomintang later became the Malaysian Chinese Association or MCA.

Two Brits, Davis and Broome were landed by submarine at Segari, Perak along with Lim Bo Seng (representing Chiang Kai Shek’s Kuomintang) to meet Loi Tek (representing the Mao Tse Tung Communists). Spencer Chapman was in the Pahang jungles and walked from there to meet up with Broome and Davis on Christmas day (December 25th) 1943 near Bidor.

Chin Peng was present as Broome's guide. The meeting took place at a place called Blantan near Bidor in Perak.

Loi Tek drove up from Singapore in a car, during Japanese occupation. He was NOT molested by the Japanese.

When these folks all met at the Blantan camp on December 30-31, 1943, Spencer Chapman knew Loi Tek (the Sec Gen of the CPM and Chin Peng’s Boss) was a British spy because Chapman had met Loi Tek before on December 19, 1941 in Geylang in Singapore when Loi Tek was handled by the British Special Branch in Singapore.

Then Loi Tek (for the Communists), Lim Bo Seng (for the Kuomintang) and the other British agents present at Blantan (Broome, Davis etc) signed a piece of scrap paper about some agreement. The so called agreement was written by hand and was written on school notebook paper.

Chin Peng did not sign because at this time he was only 19 years old and did not know anything. At this meeting he used the fake name Chen Chin Sheng. Since Loi Tek was already Chapman’s ‘agent’, Chapman did not sign the agreement (maybe Chapman could not take the hypocrisy).

It is interesting to note that both Loi Tek and Lim Bo Seng signed using fake names. Loi Tek used the name Chang Hong. Lim Bo Seng used the name Tan choon Lim. Fake names do not a treaty make.

During the Japanese occupation, Loi Tek kept betraying CPM leaders to the Japanese. In one famous incident the so called ‘top leadership’ of the CPM (actually squatter farmers, rubber tappers, carpenters etc) was wiped out by the Japanese during a ’secret’ meeting in Batu Caves. Loi Tek had informed the Japs of the secret meeting.

Then in 1945 after the Japs surrendered, Loi Tek became a British agent again. He fully briefed the Brits about who was who in the CPM. (Still no freedom fighters there). Curiously despite many 'leaders' of the fledgling CPM having suffered death, Chin Peng not only survived but was handpicked by Loi Teck (the British spy) to lead the Communists in Perak. This was in 1943.

Finally by 1947 the CPM started becoming suspicious that their Sec Gen Loi Tek was an enemy agent. The Brits told Loi Tek about this. Loi Tek escaped along with a million Dollars of CPM party funds. They say that Loi Tek ran away to Thailand where he was killed by the Thai Communists. Others have said the Brits spirited Loi Tek to London. Till today Loi Tek remains a mystery.

Chin Peng and the CPM leadership were incensed and suffered great loss of face. To save face, Chin Peng and the CPM decided to take revenge on the Brits. They killed some British planters. Hence I think it was a retaliation against the Brits for making such fools of the CPM. There was no freedom fighting involved. It was a simple case of ’Bloody shit, the Brits have made such idiots of us’.

From 1941 until 1948 Chin Peng was made a total fool and idiot by Loi Tek the leader of the CPM. Loi Tek was a British spy.  Since Chin Peng was Loi Tek's hand picked boy,  Chin Peng's elevation to the leadership of the Communist Party of Malaya was also with the blessing of the British.  The British made fools of eberyone.

In 1948 the British Government which was still recovering from the Second World War was almost bankrupt.  They needed money from their colonies to rebuild war ravaged England. 

UMNO was formed in 1946 and was demanding for Independence by 1948.  The British could not consider independence for Malaya in 1948 because Malaya was an important source of revenue for the British.

By a huge, unimaginable coincidence, Chin Peng ordered his guerrilas to murder three British planters in Perak in 1948. This prompted the British to declare a state of Emergency.  Any ideas of Independence for Malaya were extinguished. Thanks to Chin Peng, Malayan independence was postponed by nine years to 1957.  Or was it really thanks to Chin Peng?  Or did the British just use Chin Peng as an excuse to postpone granting us independence? 

Because by 1950 Chin Peng was already losing the fight.  Chin Peng ran away from Malaya to Thailand in 1955. In 1960 Chin Peng ran away to Beijing. This means Chin Peng lived in Malaya for 34 years only. For 56 years he has lived outside Malaya.  

The British granted Malaya independence in 1957.   Rubber prices had fallen drastically in 1956 and 1957 - after the end of the Korean War.  The British did not have enough revenue from Malaya to pay the salaries of the Malayan Civil Servants. So they finally let the Malayans manage their own affairs.