Ironically on the 50th anniversary of Malaysia Day, Chin Peng the exiled former communist leader has died in Bangkok.
Chin Peng, flanked by C.D. Abdullah and Tan Sri Rahim Noor, during the signing of the Peace Accord in Haadyai in 1989.
Chin Peng’s legacy after his death in a Bangkok hospital remains a hot dispute in Malaysia today.
GOVERNMENT ministers, including Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad
Zahid Hamid, were quick to denounce Chin Peng as a criminal, while DAP
leader Lim Kit Siang and website bloggers have come out to acknowledge
the role and struggle of the clandestine Communist Party of Malaya
(CPM), which Chin Peng led against British rule, saying it hastened the
achievement of Malaya’s national independence in 1957.
Even before his death, while the Government had banned films on the
CPM and his return to Malaysia from exile, his role had been grudgingly
accepted by even those who once fiercely opposed him.
Since 1989, public controversy has swirled over the party’s role and
its real contribution to the achievement of Malaya’s independence in
1957. Some people have argued that while the party’s struggle for
independence was valid up to 1957, its continuation thereafter against
the popularly elected governments of Malaya and Singapore has been
difρcult to justify.
Nevertheless, first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman in his memoirs, Lest We Forget
(1983), acknowledged the communists’ role in the struggle for
independence: “Just as Indonesia was ρghting a bloody battle, so were
the communists of Malaya, who, too, fought for independence.”
Chin Peng’s application to return to Malaysia to launch his memoirs
in September 2003 was rejected by the Home Ministry. He finally lost his
appeal against this ban in the Federal Court in 2009.
PAS leaders, including Mat Sabu, and its party organ Harakah
have recognised the role played by the CPM’s Malay leaders, Rashid
Maidin and C.D. Abdullah, in the CPM’s armed struggle in achieving
Malaya’s independence. Even former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri
Rahim Noor has echoed this recognition.
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who played a crucial
role in initiating the negotiations to end the CPM’s armed struggle,
half-heartedly recognised the role of Rashid Maidin and other Malay
communists in Malaya’s independence up to 1957, in a foreword he wrote
in a book on the CPM.
Ong Boon Hua, alias Chin Peng, was the CPM’s secretary-general for 42 years. Until his memoirs, Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History,
was published in 2003, much of his life and leadership of the party
remained shrouded in secrecy and he is best known for his wartime
(1942–45) exploits as a guerilla leader.
At the end of World War II, Chin Peng’s heroic role as an
anti-Japanese resistance leader was highlighted in Spencer Chapman’s
account, The Jungle Is Neutral (1952), in which he is portrayed
as the key link between the resistance movement in Malaya and the
British armed forces based in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Post-war Malayan newspapers called him “Britain’s most trusted man”.
For his wartime services he was awarded two military medals and an Order
of the British Empire (OBE), which was revoked when the CPM took up
arms against British rule in June 1948.
Born in Kampong Koh, in Sitiawan, Perak, on Oct 21, 1924, Chin Peng
became a communist at 15. He adopted the alias “Chin Peng” because all
secret cell members were required to conceal their true identities from
the police.
In the interwar period it took great intellectual and moral courage
to join the banned CPM as once its members’ identities became known, the
British police hunted them down.
Chin Peng found the communist ideology attractive as it stood for
social justice, the elimination of poverty, a new classless world order
and the end of imperialism.
His father from Fujian province, emigrated to Singapore where he met
and married Chin Peng’s mother. They moved to Sitiawan where they ran a
bicycle business.
The second of 11 children, Chin Peng studied at the Hua Chiao
(Overseas Chinese) Primary School in Sitiawan, and later brieςy attended
a secondary school, the Anglo-Chinese Continuation School.
While there, the police discovered his communist activities and he disappeared underground to evade arrest.
Within the movement, he worked ρrst in 1940 as a probationary member,
in charge of members in the Sitiawan district, then transferred to Ipoh
to do propaganda work, and was subsequently appointed the party’s state
secretary in 1942, the year he married a party comrade, Lee Khoon Wah,
who was from Penang. They had three children.
In 1941, during the Japanese occupation, the British administration,
accepted the CPM’s offer of volunteers to ρght the Japanese behind enemy
lines.
In Perak, Chin Peng was responsible for establishing communication
and supplies lines between the urban areas and the guerrilla forces in
the jungle camps. He was the liaison ofρcer between the British special
operations group, Force 136, and top party ofρcials in the Blantan
highlands in 1943 and 1945, to discuss the airdrop of money and arms to
the guerilla groups.
At the end of the war, in recognition of his wartime services, Chin
Peng was awarded a military medal in Singapore and later in London he
received a second medal.
In 1947, the party’s central committee purged its secretary-general,
Lai Tek, after Chin Peng and another committee member, Yeung Kuo,
exposed him as a British agent.
Chin Peng was elected to replace him and the party began to adopt a “militant” line against the British administration.
After British intelligence uncovered information that the party was
planning an insurrection, the colonial government decided to seize the
psychological advantage by declaring an emergency in Malaya in June
1948.
This was in the wake of widespread labour unrest, including the
murder of white planters on rubber estates, which it blamed on the CPM.
The British put up a reward of 250,000 Straits dollars on Chin Peng’s
head. This offer was given wide publicity in the local and foreign
press.
The Malayan Emergency lasted from 1948 to 1960, in the midst of which, Malaya secured independence on Aug 31, 1957.
In December 1955, Chin Peng and two CPM leaders, Rashid Maidin and
Chen Tien, attended “peace talks” in Baling, Kedah, with Tunku Abdul
Rahman, who was then Malaya’s chief minister, David Marshall,
Singapore’s chief minister, and Tun Tan Cheng Lock, the MCA leader.
At the Baling talks, Chin Peng rejected the offer of amnesty when he
failed to secure legal recognition for the CPM, and refused to accept
the condition that the police screen his guerillas when they laid down
their arms.
However, he made the surprising offer that the party would cease
hostilities and lay down its arms if the Tunku secured the powers of
internal security and defence in his talks on Malaya’s independence with
the British Government in London.
It strengthened the Tunku’s bargaining position in the talks, which allowed him to win Malaya’s independence.
“Tunku capitalised on my pledge and gained considerably by this,”
claims Chin Peng in his memoirs. In 1960, the Tunku’s Alliance
government ended the Malayan Emergency. An ailing Chin Peng left for
Beijing to recuperate and reorganise the party’s struggle.
He remained in Beijing for 29 years and did not return until 1989 to
bring the CPM’s armed struggle to a close after negotiating a peace
agreement with the Malaysian and the Thai Governments in Haadyai.
Chin Peng, in his book, described himself as a nationalist and freedom ρghter.
He took responsibility for the thousands of lives lost and sacriρced
in the cause of the communist struggle. “This was inevitable,” he said,
in an interview with me in Canberra in 1998. “It was a war for national
independence.
- Contributed by Cheah Boon Kheng
> Cheah Boon Kheng was Professor of History at Universiti Sains
Malaysia until his retirement in 1994. He was a visiting fellow in
Singapore, Canberra and at USM. He is the author of several books,
including The Masked Comrades (1979) and Red Star Over Malaya (1983).
Related post:
Tracing the origins of the formation of Malaysia Sept 16
Related Articles:
Chin Pengs last wish to go unfulfilled
Chin Pengs ashes should be allowed home says Kit Siang
Chua He was a key figure who undermined national security
Expolice chief forgives him
Zainuddin: I stayed and ate at same hotel Chin Peng was in
I read of Chin Peng, heard of him, met him and now have a 'piece of him', says newsman
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Showing posts with label British colonial master. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British colonial master. Show all posts
Tuesday 17 September 2013
Thursday 4 April 2013
Malaysia's future lies in Malaysian hands! Electoral system for GE13 ready now?
FINALLY, the curtain has been drawn and the ball is at our feet to decide the destiny of our nation over the next five years.
The much-awaited announcement on the dissolution of Parliament was made at 11.30am yesterday, exactly four years after Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak took office as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Although everyone waited for the dissolution for quite some time, I think the Prime Minister waited till this day to complete his four years of premiership. And of course, he had a lot on his agenda to be completed especially the Janji Ditepati tour and all his other innovative and transformative plans.
Whether the polls were called last year or not, it’s the prerogative of the PM of the day to call the shots and he had done it well within the stipulated period. He had until April 28 to do so.
Polling should be held within 60 days and my guess is it will be held within 30 days and let’s hope the voters will make good use of this opportunity to elect the right people to run the country.
Our future lies in the hands of 13 million voters and everyone should exercise their vote with utmost sincerity. Whichever divide we support, let’s be rational and civil about it.
At the end of the day, we are talking about our nation, our beloved Malaysia.
I am not propagating whom you should vote for but vote you must, professionally and wisely.
Do not be misled and succumb to empty promises.
We need a leader who is truly a Malaysian at heart, one who cares for the rakyat. Reject the extremists.
As the Prime Minister has said, do not derail Vision 2020. Whoever comes to power should focus their attention on achieving the developed status of our country.
Vision 2020 is not only Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s dream but the dream of all Malaysians.
Policies and plans laid out for the betterment of the country should be complemented. One should always put the nation above self.
To all the parties, especially Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, I hope that common sense will prevail before, during and after the polls.
Let’s hope and pray the run-up to the elections will be fair and clean and at the same time the parties concerned will act maturely and ethically.
At the end of the day, common sense should prevail and chaos after the elections should not be an option.
All parties should accept the decision of the voters and the verdict gracefully.
To the winners, syabas and to those who failed, I wish you the best the next time around.
Do not underestimate the intelligence of the voters. We are no more the katak di bawah tempurung - simply put, naive.
We, the rakyat, are very well-informed and would not be easily swayed by sweet talk or fiery speeches. We only want the truth and the best from our elected representatives.
JAYARAJ KGS Sitiawan - The Star
Is Malaysia’s electoral system ready for GE13?
One of the special features in Malaysia’s multi-ethnic society is the still predominantly race-based party system. UMNO, the long term dominant ruling party was founded in 1946 as a reaction against the granting of citizenship to Chinese and Indian immigrants upon independence.
With a possible, some say probable, watershed and regime change for
Malaysia’s increasingly competitive political system in the pipeline, it
is useful to look into the election system and its mechanisms. The
media, fascinated with personality clashes, campaign highlights and the
outcome of elections, don’t look too often into details of the
electoral law. And most voters don’t care much whether the ruling
governments tweak the rules in their own favour, most often by changing
the boundaries of precincts more or less unnoticed – the old,
widespread, and popular gerrymandering. Malaysia is not alone here, but
the discrepancies in the electoral size of constituencies in favour of
Malay and against Chinese areas have been “adjusted” frequently and
helped the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) to safeguard its
dominance over the last decades.
One of the special features in Malaysia’s multi-ethnic society is the still predominantly race-based party system. UMNO, the long term dominant ruling party was founded in 1946 as a reaction against the granting of citizenship to Chinese and Indian immigrants upon independence. The defensive attitude of the Malay (then shaky) majority, understandably insisting on political dominance in their own homeland, led to the formation of other ethnic-based political parties. UMNO, in a successful move to broaden its support base since 1974, managed to co-opt the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), the Malaysian People’s Movement Party (GERAKAN) and a number of parties in Sabah and Sarawak into the National Front (Barisan Nasional / BN) coalition (now altogether 13 parties), which enjoyed a huge majority in Parliament until 2008.
Irregularities in most general elections until now have been reported quite regularly. The long list reaches from vote buying, stuffing of ballot boxes, bussing of voters to other constituencies and multiple voting, “phantom voters”, “imported voters”, “missing voters”, manipulated voters lists, to granting citizenship to illegal immigrants (mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines). The latter is now one of the major arguments to attack UMNO and Prime Minister Najib Razak for this citizenship for votes trick. Najib, who has promised his followers to win back the coalition’s two-thirds majority, seems to struggle for political survival now, if rumours and polls are a reliable indicator.
The Barisan Nasional has been only nominally multi-racial but cemented in reality the Malay dominance and privileges (with quite a number of affirmative action measures), which nearly guaranteed so called “safe deposit” constituencies especially in rural areas. Pretending that the Malay political dominance was under threat has always rallied Malay voters behind the ruling coalition. And to make things even more difficult, the competition of the Islamic Party PAS often forced UMNO to demonstrate its religious credentials. With the resentment against this concept among non-Malay minorities (at least about 30%) growing with the frustration about strings of prominent corruption-scandals, it was a logical strategic move for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to form a multi-racial party, the Peoples’ Justice Party or Parti Keadilan Rakyat in 2003. Anwar, after being sacked from UMNO and his post as Deputy Prime Minister in 1998, accused under dubious circumstances of corruption and sodomy and imprisoned, is back on the political scene since 2008 and the probable Prime Minister if his opposition “Peoples’ Pact” (Pakatan Rakyat / PR) wins the upcoming election. The Pakatan Rakyat is not without internal problems given the diversity of its members, namely the Malay Islamic rival of UMNO, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and the Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP). However, given the erosion of the Barisan Nasional component parties Gerakan (officially multi-racial but predominantly Chinese and the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), Pakatan Rakyat seems to be a very strong challenger to the ruling coalition.
Inherited from the British colonial master, Malaysia has adopted a clear-cut first-past-the-post majoritarian election system which has helped to keep UMNO and its BN component parties in power so far. The Barisan-coalition contesting the elections practically as one single party gave few choices to the voters and made it more than difficult for opposition parties to make inroads… until 2008 when more voters were fed up with arrogance of power and all too visible corruption. The majority of the BN in 2008 was clear, with 140 seats against 82 for the opposition, which is four times their previous share. But in relative vote shares it was as narrow as 50.27% against 46.75%. And nota bene: in the first-past-the-post electoral system relatively small changes in voter preferences can change the outcome dramatically.
The much-awaited announcement on the dissolution of Parliament was made at 11.30am yesterday, exactly four years after Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak took office as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Although everyone waited for the dissolution for quite some time, I think the Prime Minister waited till this day to complete his four years of premiership. And of course, he had a lot on his agenda to be completed especially the Janji Ditepati tour and all his other innovative and transformative plans.
Whether the polls were called last year or not, it’s the prerogative of the PM of the day to call the shots and he had done it well within the stipulated period. He had until April 28 to do so.
Polling should be held within 60 days and my guess is it will be held within 30 days and let’s hope the voters will make good use of this opportunity to elect the right people to run the country.
Our future lies in the hands of 13 million voters and everyone should exercise their vote with utmost sincerity. Whichever divide we support, let’s be rational and civil about it.
At the end of the day, we are talking about our nation, our beloved Malaysia.
I am not propagating whom you should vote for but vote you must, professionally and wisely.
Do not be misled and succumb to empty promises.
We need a leader who is truly a Malaysian at heart, one who cares for the rakyat. Reject the extremists.
As the Prime Minister has said, do not derail Vision 2020. Whoever comes to power should focus their attention on achieving the developed status of our country.
Vision 2020 is not only Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s dream but the dream of all Malaysians.
Policies and plans laid out for the betterment of the country should be complemented. One should always put the nation above self.
To all the parties, especially Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, I hope that common sense will prevail before, during and after the polls.
Let’s hope and pray the run-up to the elections will be fair and clean and at the same time the parties concerned will act maturely and ethically.
At the end of the day, common sense should prevail and chaos after the elections should not be an option.
All parties should accept the decision of the voters and the verdict gracefully.
To the winners, syabas and to those who failed, I wish you the best the next time around.
Do not underestimate the intelligence of the voters. We are no more the katak di bawah tempurung - simply put, naive.
We, the rakyat, are very well-informed and would not be easily swayed by sweet talk or fiery speeches. We only want the truth and the best from our elected representatives.
JAYARAJ KGS Sitiawan - The Star
Is Malaysia’s electoral system ready for GE13?
One of the special features in Malaysia’s multi-ethnic society is the still predominantly race-based party system. UMNO, the long term dominant ruling party was founded in 1946 as a reaction against the granting of citizenship to Chinese and Indian immigrants upon independence.
One of the special features in Malaysia’s multi-ethnic society is the still predominantly race-based party system. UMNO, the long term dominant ruling party was founded in 1946 as a reaction against the granting of citizenship to Chinese and Indian immigrants upon independence. The defensive attitude of the Malay (then shaky) majority, understandably insisting on political dominance in their own homeland, led to the formation of other ethnic-based political parties. UMNO, in a successful move to broaden its support base since 1974, managed to co-opt the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), the Malaysian People’s Movement Party (GERAKAN) and a number of parties in Sabah and Sarawak into the National Front (Barisan Nasional / BN) coalition (now altogether 13 parties), which enjoyed a huge majority in Parliament until 2008.
Irregularities in most general elections until now have been reported quite regularly. The long list reaches from vote buying, stuffing of ballot boxes, bussing of voters to other constituencies and multiple voting, “phantom voters”, “imported voters”, “missing voters”, manipulated voters lists, to granting citizenship to illegal immigrants (mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines). The latter is now one of the major arguments to attack UMNO and Prime Minister Najib Razak for this citizenship for votes trick. Najib, who has promised his followers to win back the coalition’s two-thirds majority, seems to struggle for political survival now, if rumours and polls are a reliable indicator.
The Barisan Nasional has been only nominally multi-racial but cemented in reality the Malay dominance and privileges (with quite a number of affirmative action measures), which nearly guaranteed so called “safe deposit” constituencies especially in rural areas. Pretending that the Malay political dominance was under threat has always rallied Malay voters behind the ruling coalition. And to make things even more difficult, the competition of the Islamic Party PAS often forced UMNO to demonstrate its religious credentials. With the resentment against this concept among non-Malay minorities (at least about 30%) growing with the frustration about strings of prominent corruption-scandals, it was a logical strategic move for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to form a multi-racial party, the Peoples’ Justice Party or Parti Keadilan Rakyat in 2003. Anwar, after being sacked from UMNO and his post as Deputy Prime Minister in 1998, accused under dubious circumstances of corruption and sodomy and imprisoned, is back on the political scene since 2008 and the probable Prime Minister if his opposition “Peoples’ Pact” (Pakatan Rakyat / PR) wins the upcoming election. The Pakatan Rakyat is not without internal problems given the diversity of its members, namely the Malay Islamic rival of UMNO, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and the Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP). However, given the erosion of the Barisan Nasional component parties Gerakan (officially multi-racial but predominantly Chinese and the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), Pakatan Rakyat seems to be a very strong challenger to the ruling coalition.
Inherited from the British colonial master, Malaysia has adopted a clear-cut first-past-the-post majoritarian election system which has helped to keep UMNO and its BN component parties in power so far. The Barisan-coalition contesting the elections practically as one single party gave few choices to the voters and made it more than difficult for opposition parties to make inroads… until 2008 when more voters were fed up with arrogance of power and all too visible corruption. The majority of the BN in 2008 was clear, with 140 seats against 82 for the opposition, which is four times their previous share. But in relative vote shares it was as narrow as 50.27% against 46.75%. And nota bene: in the first-past-the-post electoral system relatively small changes in voter preferences can change the outcome dramatically.
By Wolfgang Sachsenroeder, New Mandala
Related post:
26 Mar 2013
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