Chin Peng - hero or enemy? (Part 1)

Love or loathe him, the legendary secretary-general of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) Chin Peng, 79, is a man of indomitable will. Otherwise, he could not have survived those chaotic and turbulent years, from 1939 to 1989, of incessant and intriguing struggles for political ideas, power and influence.

However, the will to survive has not degenerated into narcissism. Tempered by long years of genuinely motivated idealism, organisational discipline and experience-based intellect, his willpower is therefore blended with a balanced, sociable and normal personality that enables him to conceptually distinguish between Western colonialism and imperialism on hand, and fellow human beings from the West on the other.

His 50-year political and armed struggle may not have succeeded in bringing his party into constitutionally recognised power, but the will has empowered him to finally reclaim, in public domain, that version or portion of the national and even world history that he, as a mover and shaper at the material and critical time, has always been proud of.

Like it or not, many in Malaysia and Singapore, like Rashid Maidin and Abdullah C.D, still share his justified and justifiable pride of being true partisans in the heroic struggle against the then British colonialism, Japanese militarism and their indigenous quislings and surrogates, and for national independence.

As Singaporean historian Dr Yong Ching Fatt summed up in an in-depth study of the early years of the origins of Malayan communism, the CPM "created a left-wing political tradition of daring to champion the cause of the underdogs, the underprivileged and the underclass during the late colonial era and perpetuate it in the post-independence years". (see C F Yong, The Origins of Malayan Communism, Singapore, South Seas Society, 1997, pp 278-279)

Dr Cheah Boon Kheng, a veteran Malaysian historian, also recently opined that "ironically, it was this communist insurrection which forced the British government to accelerate its plans further for Malaya's decolonisation" and that "communist insurgents" played an " important role as a catalyst "of the struggle for independence. (see Cheah Boon Kheng, Malaysia - The Making of a Nation, Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Institute, 2002, p 22)

Indeed, as Czech poet and playwright Milan Kundera once philosophised, the struggle against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.

The cover of Chin Peng's recently released 527-page memoir, My Side of History (Singapore, Media Masters, September 2003), tells more than a thousand words in just two juxtaposed photographs.

One shows a boyishly skinny Chin Peng, then 22, who wore the military uniform of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), shaking hands with one of the then most powerful men in the British Empire and even the world, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten. This took place on the steps of the Municipal Building in Singapore on Jan 6, 1946.

The photograph was taken when Chin Peng was receiving his Burma Star and 1939/45 Star medals, two military decorations of the British Empire, in recognition of his contribution to the war of resistance against Japanese militarism during the Pacific War and invasion and occupation of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.

During the war, Mountbatten was the Supreme Allied Commander of the Southeast Asia Command (SEAC) and Chin Peng, a field commander of the CPM-led resistance forces in Perak.

As wartime allies, their organisations stealthily assisted each other through the medium of one of the British secret services, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Later in 1947, Chin Peng was additionally awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Another photograph displays a news report on May 1, 1952 in the front page of the Straits Times, a mouthpiece of colonial interests and values, declaring Chin Peng as "public enemy No 1" and a 250,000 (Straits dollar) award to anyone who could bring him in "alive" to the authorities.

In a short period of seven years, a war hero on the side of the Allied dramatically became 'public enemy No1' and a 'terrorist' of the British Empire and, by extension, the Free World.

Looking further into the more distant history, one could be forgiven for being even more critical. From the inception of CPM in April 1930 to late1941, its leaders and members, except for those 'plants', 'moles' and 'sleepers' like Lai Te @ Loi Tak @ Lye Teck @ Wright @ Chang Hoong @ Lloyd @ Wong Kim Gyok @ Wong Show Tong, were hunted like common criminals, jailed, banished (to Dutch East Indies, China or India) and even killed as 'subversives' or 'undesirable aliens'.

However, as the usually boastful colonial authorities found themselves powerless to resist the more forceful and artful Japanese invaders, they were released from political detentions, instantly hailed as allies, trained and armed as guerilla fighters.

What went wrong? What happened? Who was right and who was wrong? Are winners or the powerful forever right, and losers or the weaker, always wrong?

Are there explanations that go beyond or above personal rights and wrongs?

These seem to be the essential questions that Chin Peng apparently attempts to answer, in his long-awaited memoirs, from the standpoint, perspective or paradigm of a man who apparently feels betrayed, lives long and perseveres enough to tell his side of the story for the intellectual and moral benefits of posterity.

Make no mistake: Chin Peng's sentiment is not his alone but a widely shared feeling among many Malaysians and Singaporeans of his generation, like those who still remember or know about the Batang Kali Massacre on Dec 12, 1948, six months of the 'Emergency' had been declared, when 24 unarmed and innocent Chinese civilians were shot in cold-blood and intentionally by the Scots Guards and a police patrol. (pp 239-243)

According to Chin Peng, the UK Ministry of Defence "has remained tight-lipped" and "all police files on Batang Kali are classified to this day". (p 243)

Above all, this feeling or sentiment also seems to be still universal and, rightly or wrongly, self-reproducing from one generation to another through the preservation or rediscovery of collective memories, if no measure is taken to heal the collective wounds or if incidents or events of similar nature are endlessly repeated, albeit in different settings and with different national, ethnic, religious and political characters.

Seen in these light, by publishing his memoirs, Chin Peng has performed a remarkable public service to not only Malaysians, Singaporeans and Britons but also all those in the world who, after surveying contemporary international relations and global politics, ask the question: What has gone wrong? What is to be done?

This is not to say that Chin Peng claims to be perfect or that he has done no wrong. If the memoirs are read carefully between the lines, there are indeed many self-criticisms or, at least, self-critical reflections.

For example, Chin Peng regrets and feels "very sorry" for the killing of one Ian Christian, a young British estate manager who had just reported to work in Malaya, by his fellow communist insurgents in Sungai Siput, Perak, on June 16, 1948. (pp. 212-215)

Of course, Chen Peng makes no apologies for the successful targeting of Sir Henry Gurney, British High Commissioner in Malaya, by a platoon of communist insurgents led by Siew Ma on Oct 5, 1951. (pp 287-294)

The 'Emergency' was, in his view, essentially a war and Gurney was, in the context of war, a participating enemy commander and therefore a legitimate target.

Indeed, as Socrates once philosophised: unexamined life is not worth living. And life, in this philosophical context, could be personal as well as national, communal or organisational.

However, the world has also changed drastically. With the exception of his home country for whose independence he also fought and sacrificed, Chin Peng can now travel and meet people quite freely in all other countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia.

To prepare for the writing of 'My Side of History' in the past several years, Chin Peng and his co-authors were able to liberally consult official archives and other intellectual institutions, including the Public Record Office and Imperial War Museum in the United Kingdom as well as the Australian War Memorial.

For example, Chin Peng himself traveled to London in 1998 and Canberra in 1999 to meet veteran journalists and academics for the purpose of writing his memoirs that are justly critical of Western colonialism and imperialism in his younger days.

This speaks volume of the spirit of the rule of law, tolerance and magnanimity of the values and systems of liberal democracies that was once condemned by revolutionary communists as " bourgeois decadence".

The ultimate question is whether Chin Peng's surviving persecutors, nemeses and detractors both personal and institutional, dare to read the memoirs in full, confront the contradictions and challenges to their ideas, and engage in open, honest and rational debates to clarify issues and rectify mistakes and errors so that the minds of future generations could be liberated from historical calumnies and propagandistic falsehood.

Chin Peng has obviously read most, if not all, their books, pamphlets and leaflets, monographs, articles and dossiers. This is called moral and intellectual courage, and the lack of it is, cowardice.

Above all, Chin Peng has the right to reply.

Part 2