Alias Chin Peng - My Side of History

By Chin Peng

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9810486936
• ISBN13: 9789810486938
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Media Masters Pte. Ltd.
• Length: 527 Pages
• Weight: 2.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.7" x 1.4" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Malayan Emergency - other perspectives

The Emergency in post WWII Malaya is presented as a victory of the forces of good (the British) over evil (mostly ethnic Chinese Communists Terrorists). The counter-terrorism strategy of the British in Malaya is commonly cited as a model for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Chin Peng has a different story. As leader of the Malayan Communists he was alternately a hero of World War II - decorated by Lord Mountbatten for bravery - and a terrorist with a price on his head. It is a cliche that history is written by the winners. The loser's story is also interesting. It is full of duplicity, intrigue, betrayal, justification of terror, and some startling facts. A quick vignette - after the Japanese Emperor surrendered, hundreds of Japanese soldiers in Malaya refused to surrender to the British. They joined the Communist guerillas they had been fighting days before. Some of these Japanese soldiers stayed in Malaysia fighting for another 40 years.

The Third Domino

Chin Peng and the Third Domino At 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 the relocation of the CPM upper echelons into China in 1960 and thuis demonstrated the cont

Malayan Emergency - the other side of history!

This is a highly readable book and I would like to recommend it to readers who want to study the Malayan Emergency (l948-l960) from the other side. Several books (The War of the Running Dogs and The Jungle is Neutral) have been written about the Emergency but the story has not been told from the other side about the nature of this shooting war. Just before the start of the Second World War in Asia (known eventually as the Pacific War), the colonial authorities in British Malaya (now independent Malaysia) quietly made the necessary preparations for a stay-behind party to fight the impending Imperial Japan's invasion force in Malaya (1942-1945)called the British Force 136. When the Jap forces invaded Malaya, the Force 136 linked up with the local guerilla force of 5,000 strong led by the young Malayan named Chin Peng alias Ong Boon Hwa, who was born in the village of Sitiawan in Perak State. Chin Peng was educated in English and Chinese. His force called Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army was ready to work with the British stay-behind party. Complimenting each other in the "impenetrable jungles of Malaya, they helped each other and harassed the Jap armed invaders at every opportunity. Col. Spencer Chapman (author of The Jungle is Neutral), a member of the Force 136, witnessed at first hand the abled leadership of Chin Peng. Eventually when the Pacific War terminated with the unconditional surrender of the Imperial Japan led by Tojo, and the returned of the British Military Administration to Malaya, Chin Peng went to England and participated in the Allied Victory Parade in London and was subsequently awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his contributions in fighting the Japs. Then Chin Peng and his freedom fighters were told to lay down their arms and return to society. Their return to civilian life was conditional to the British concrete promise to grant timely independence to Malaya. When the British refused, the so-called Malayan Emergency started with the now British Commonwealth troops versus the experienced jungle force of Chin Peng, a once staunched British ally! In every armed struggle there will be sufferings, loses and animosities, each side calling the other the enemy! In l960, Chin Peng and his undefeated jungle force retreated to the borderland between Malaysia and Thailand. In l989, with the support and encouragement of China, Chin Peng and his forces finally signed an agreement called the Haadyai Peace Accord (between Chin Peng's jungle force, Malaysia and Thailand), which stipulated among other things, that those former gurellias, if they were born in Malaysia, would be allowed to return Malaysia and enter civilian life. And about 400 former fighters returned. But Chin Peng and the balance of more than 1,000 stayed on in Thailand and established their Friendship Village and farmed. However, Chin Peng's recent request to return to his village of Sitiawan to pay respects as his parents' grav