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Chin Peng joined the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) in January, 1940, as a 15 year old schoolboy. His commitment to the communist cause, the pre-war anti-colonial struggle against Britain and, eventually, guerrilla warfare against the Japanese invaders, saw him propelled rapidly to senior positions within the CPM party structure. By the age of 18 he had become the key link between the communists' Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) and Britain's clandestine Force 136, then endeavouring to set up intelligence-gathering operations behind enemy lines. Immediately following the Japanese surrender, Chin Peng was appointed to the Central Committee and, ultimately, his party's policy making Politburo. He was barely 21. At 23, he was formally named the CPM's Secretary General, it highest ranking figure. By June 1948, the Malayan Emergency erupted and Chin Peng, four months shy of his 24th year, became the British Empire's most wanted man.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Third Domino,
By Dr Neil MacNeill "Dr Neil MacNeill" (Ellenbrook, Western Australia, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History (Paperback)
Chin Peng and the Third DominoAt the end of the Second World War, the Japanese surrender left a political vacuum in South East Asia. In Indo-China and Malaya, the local communist parties had provided powerful support for the Allied cause after Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. None of these communist parties wanted the return of their colonial masters and a rash of independence movements developed in Indonesia, Malaya, Indo-China, and in the sub-continent, also. After the fall of China to Mao's forces and the French loss at Dien Bien Phu, the untidy nil-all draw in Korea, Malaya appeared to be the third domino to fall. There have been many British analyses of the so-called "Emergency" but Chin Peng's "My Side of History" provides an interesting and much needed balance. Chin Peng (Ong Boon Hua) had been born in Malaya in 1924 of Nanyang Chinese parents. At an early age, he developed nationalist and communist beliefs, becoming a probationary member of the Communist Party of Malaya in 1940 as a 16 year old. Japan's entry to the war and the defeat of the Commonwealth forces in Singapore increased the CPM's importance, and the British SOE established guerrilla teams in Malaya with CPM assistance. The war facilitated Chin Peng's rise in the Communist Party and the traitorous General Secretary Lai Te, collaborating with the Japanese betrayed other challenging high-ranking key members. When the war ended Lai Te (a Vietnamese) then returned to working under the control of British Special Branch. Chin Peng was awarded two medals by the returning British for his help in defeating the Japanese. However, there was a growing mood in Malaya for independence and little appetite for the return of the pompous British, as colonial masters. Soon the CPM realised that interregnum was not going to give Malaya, or their party what they sought and so they retreated into state based sanctuaries. Communications were a major problem for the CPM and Central Committee meetings were difficult to organise and dangerous. Chin Peng was lucky and in his jungle redoubts, he avoided the betrayals and ambushes during the Emergency. Of interest, from a military viewpoint, is that the CPM did not develop the same degree of control or organisation that the communists had developed in Vietnam. Generally, they had to rely on couriers who were constantly endangered. Secondly the British devised the Briggs Plan of "new villages" to cut off the CPM from its food and support sources. This proved to be very effective and Chin Peng confirms its affect on party members in the jungle. The Briggs Plan later appeared in South Vietnam as "Strategic Hamlets", which were not successful in that environment. The effectiveness of the Commonwealth troops' patrolling and failure to win popular support forced Chin Peng's permanent relocation across the border into southern Thailand. The threat of the SAS forced a relocation of the CPM upper echelons into China in 1960 and this demonstrated the control infrastructure that the communists had in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, even at that time. Chin Peng's "My Side of History" adds the missing dimension to the conflict in Malaya, but I felt that a lot of detail and intensity had been lost with the passage of time.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very precious book,
By
This review is from: Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History (Paperback)
Although I just began to read this book four days ago, I still want to say that if you are interested in modern history of Malaysia and Southeast Asia, especially Malayan and Southeast Asian communist movement, you must have this book, because it is one of very few books in the fiels mentioned-above, and it is the only book personally written by Chin Peng, the former General Secretry of Malayan Communist Party.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good historical account,
By
This review is from: Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History (Paperback)
From a readability perspective this book is very hard work, but as regards content, this was a brilliantly informative read.Gives us Brits an insight into our distinctly murky past.
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