Author: CHUNG Yoon-Ngan
Date: 09-09-03 03:41
My Side of History - Chen Ping
Chen Ping (陳平), the leader of the defeated Malayan Communist Party, has recently written his autobiography. His book is called "My Side of History" describing the Communist side of the 1948 - 1960 Malayan Emergency, a war between the British Colonial Authority in Malaya and the Malayan Communist Party. Chen Ping, now 79, published his book in Thailand. Last week the Malaysian Customs officers seized 900 of the first consignment of 2,000 books imported into Malaysia but missed the rest. Officers from the Home Ministry's censorship department raided a bookshop and removed every copy from the shop. The officers told the staffs that the title was banned. Observers believe that the Malaysian Government may have found the idea of letting Chen Ping telling the Communist side of the story is intolerable.
Chen Ping was born Ong Boon Hua (Wang Wen Hua 王文華) in October 1924 into a
Foochow Chinese (福州) family in Sitiawan (實兆遠) in the state of Perak, Malaya.
Chen Ping's father ran a small bicycle repair shop in this small town, at No. 36 jalan Kampong Koh,Sitiawan, which is about 50 kilometers south-west of Ipoh, the state capital of Perak. When he was a young boy Chen Ping studied Chinese and had completed his Chinese middle high school in Nan Hua High School (南華中學) in Sitiawan. After his Chinese education Chen Ping went to study English in an English school, the Anglo Chinese Continuation School (ACCS 英華英校) in Sitiawan. In 1940 Chen Ping left the school and he joined the Malayan Communist Party (MCP). Chen Ping was directed to work as an assistance in printing the MCP newspaper, Ren Dao Bao (人道報 Humane Newspaper), in Menglumbu (萬里望), two kilometers south of Ipoh.
Before the arrival of the Japanese in December 1941, Chen Ping was appointed
a Committee Member in the State of Perak branch of the MCP. Chen Ping was in charge of the central region of the state of Perak, comprising the towns of Ipoh, Pusing (my hometown), Chemor, Papan, Siputeh, Lahat and a few others. During the Japanese occupation Chen Ping was the chairman of the Anti-Japanese Alliance in Perak State. He was fluent in English and he became the head of the MCP liason officer with the Force 136, the British Anti-Japanese Force in Malaya during the Japanese occupation. Force 136 were in alliance with the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA). From Ceylon, the British air-dropped weapons to the MPAJA because the British wanted the MPAJA to help them to reconquer Malaya.
All over Malaya during the Japanese occupation there were eight regiments of Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army with more than two thousand fighters who
were supported mainly by the Malayan Chinese. The war in China had made many Chinese anti-Japanese. The Japanese accused the Chinese of helping the "bandits" (Note: The Japanese called all guerrillas "bandits," never acknowledging the existence of ant-Japanese fighters). The Malays and Indians in Malaya practically took no parts in anti-Japanese warfare. Mainly the Chinese bore the brunt of Japanese brutality.
The disposition of the M.P.A.J.A was as follows:
No.1 Independent Regiment was in Selangor
No.2 Independent regiment was in Negri Sembilan
No.3 Independent Regiment was in North Johore
No.4 Independent Regiment was in South Johore
No.5 Independent Regiment was in Perak
No.6 Independent Regiment was in Pahang
No.7 Independent Regiment was in Trengganu
No.8 Independent Regiment was in Kedah.
After the Second World War, in 1947 Chen Ping was elected the Secretay-General of the MCP. In 1948 when war broke out between the British and the MPAJA the MCP changed the name from MPAJA to Malayan People's Anti-British Army (MPABA). This war was never called war but "The Emergency". By using the name of Emergency the British property owners in Malaya could claim compensation for damages from their insurance companies in England and Malaya. Under the British Colonial law in Malaya the British could not claim for any compensation for property damaged or life lost during war time.
At the high of the Emergency the British began to call the MPABA, "the bandits". All the records on the Emergency were written by the British Colonial Authority in Malaya. They invented all kind of names to call the MPABA, 'bandits' 'communist terrorits' etc. The British knew most of the members of the MCP were Chinese not necessarily only Hakkas. Chen Ping, the undisputed leader of the Malayan Communist Party, is not a Hakka but a Foochow.
Chen Ping held the position of the Secretary-General of the Malayan Communist Party until 1989 when members of the MCP voluntarily dissolved their own party. Chen Ping came out from the jungle and became an ordinary citizen of Malaysia. He is a businessman now.
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
9092003
Yoon-Ngan
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