Maoist cult leader who preyed on Malaysia-Singapore students in UK

 

Aravindan Balakrishnan indulged in delusional politics, made wild claims and ordered his followers to obey bizarre rules. (Reuters pic)

PETALING JAYA: Cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan who died in Britain last week was a self-styled Maoist who was in the mix of Malaysian and Singaporean student activism in London in the 1960s and 70s.

Nihilistic and anti-intellectual, Aravindan was a disciple of China’s Chairman Mao Zedong at a time when student activists of progressive politics had a keen sense of social justice and strove to create a non-racial, just and truly democratic society in their newly independent nations.

Calling himself “Comrade Bala”, he exhibited intolerant views in his early encounters with the students, many of whom shunned him; but he persisted and forced a number of students to drop their studies, convincing them that dropping out was a revolutionary act.

Fortunately, some broke away in time, due to the influence of more rational voices in the student movements and returned to their studies.

A young Aravindan who became a monster, carrying out out a ruthless campaign of sexual degradation on women in his sect over the decades they were held. (Facebook pic)

Following the rescue of three women, enslaved for decades, including Malaysian Siti Aishah Wahab in a Aravindan-run Maoist commune in 2013, some British newspapers branded Malaysian and Singaporean students from his era as being revolutionaries.

The same theme was regurgitated following the death of the left-wing extremist at the age of 81 in a British prison last Friday.

He had been jailed for 23 years in 2016 for offences including false imprisonment, sex assaults, including raping his daughter, and cruelty.

A Malaysian student leader who knew Aravindan personally dispelled the label of “revolutionary students” pinned on Malaysian and Singaporean students of that era, saying there was only a small number of hardcore followers of the narcissist.

He said Aravindan did not play any role other than attend some of the public meetings organised by the six student movements then.

Aravindan did not stand for any positions in these bodies as they were not allowed to have office bearers and members from other nationalities.

Some of the movements refused to comply with the directive as it was considered an infringement of student rights and they operated outside Malaysia Hall.

Aravindan took control of the Malaysian and Singaporean Students Forum (Mass Forum), whose name was later changed to Mass Movement.

Mass Forum had its history in the pre-Independence period when it was called Malayan Forum and former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein was its chairman.

The student leader, who requested anonymity, said in 1971, sharp ideological differences that had been building up split the students involved in progressive politics, mainly from the Federation of UK and Eire Malaysian and Singaporean Students Organisation.

Siti Aishah Wahab was freed by the UK police in 2013 after living under the spell of Aravindan for more than three decades. (kedahnews.com pic)

“The split was led by Aravindan who was egomaniacal and suffered from delusions of grandeur.

“He insisted on a revolutionary doctrinaire Maoist orientation, against those who wanted a broad progressive programme and trajectory for the student movement,” he said.

He said student activists of progressive politics were not constrained by the ideological hang-ups or dogmatism promoted by Aravindan.

“We were conscious that progressive politics meant educating oneself and educating fellow Malaysian-Singaporean students about the history, politics and economic structures of colonial and neo-colonial realities of our nations.

He said Aravindan’s perverse logic was demonstrated when his group morphed into the Workers Institute and finally into the Workers Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-Tung Thought.

The institute was made up of mainly student dropouts and with no worker following or membership it became a cult, he said.

Aravindan insisted that his followers called him “Comrade Bala” and claimed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army would launch a revolutionary invasion of Britain by 1980.

Born in Kerala, India, Aravindan went to London around 1963 after graduating from the University of Singapore with an economics degree.

Aravindan with some of the women whom he enslaved for years. (London Metropolitan Police pic)

He joined the London School of Economics, a hotbed of political activity, as an undergraduate to repeat his first degree because he had graduated with a general degree. After a few years he dropped out as well.

Describing himself as a ‘revolutionary socialist’, he soon began public speaking and recruited fellow students and Malaysian nurses for his cause.

Aravindan had a penchant for nurses and during his trial the alleged accidental death of one of them, Oh Kar Eng, became known, as did the existence of her ashes.

Oh, who distributed leaflets and organised talks for Aravindan, was tasked with recruiting nurses while Aishah’s role was to recruit students.

Over the years Aravindan became a control freak, made his supporters follow bizarre rules and demanded unquestioned loyalty.

As Malaysian and Singaporean members of his group abandoned him in the early 1970s, with the exception of a few die-hard individuals, he turned more towards British politics via the Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist), which also later expelled him. - FMT