Author: Newguy
Date: 10-10-04 00:43
Ex-communist chief Chin Peng visits Singapore
Entry ban temporarily lifted to allow him to speak at Iseas seminar
By Asad Latif
CHIN Peng, best known for leading the communist insurgency in Malaya and Singapore, was given permission to visit Singapore for a speaking engagement last week, his first trip here since the Malayan Emergency was declared in 1948.
During his stay in Singapore, Chin Peng called on local war heroine Elizabeth Choy.
An entry ban imposed on him was lifted temporarily by the Home Affairs Ministry to enable him to travel here from Thailand to speak at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies (Iseas) last Thursday.
During his three-day stay from Wednesday, he also toured several historical landmarks and other sites.
This included a drive by City Hall, a visit to the Civilian War Memorial honouring those who died during the Japanese invasion and occupation of Singapore in World War II, and the memorial to wartime hero Lim Bo Seng.
He was also driven through Queen Street, where the Communist Party of Malaya's (CPM) headquarters was located.
Also on Friday, he called on local war heroine Elizabeth Choy, whom he has been known to admire, at her MacKenzie Road home.
'Getting a visit from such a famous figure was one of the greatest surprises of my life,' Ms Choy, 94, told The Sunday Times.
On Dec 28 1955, Chin Peng emerged from the jungle for truce talks during the Malayan Emergency.
'We got on very well because we are both Hakka.'
Chin Peng, who turns 80 later this month, was the former secretary-general of the CPM, a position he took on in 1947. That was a year before the Malayan Emergency was declared following the party's armed resistance to British rule.
The emergency ended in 1960, but it was only in 1989 that a peace accord was signed in Thailand, where the former guerilla chief and several of his comrades are based.
It is understood that at Thursday's closed-door Iseas seminar, he discussed the circumstances in which he had taken up armed struggle against the British, the CPM's role in the independence of Malaya, and the factors that led to the 1989 accord.
His memoirs, Alias Chin Peng: My Side Of History, which detail these and other issues, were published in Singapore last year. The Chinese edition is due in a few weeks.
A Home Affairs Ministry spokesman told The Sunday Times yesterday that Chin Peng had been invited by Iseas to participate in a closed-door seminar. It had sought the ministry's approval prior to the trip.
First trip here since 1948
THIS is Chin Peng's first trip to Singapore since the Malayan Emergency was declared in 1948. He became the secretary-general of the Communist Party of Malaya in 1947 - a year before the Malayan Emergency was declared following the party's armed resistance to British rule.
He was the key link between the communists' Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army and Britain's Force 136, which was trying to set up intelligence-gathering operations during World War II.
'After careful consideration, the ministry had agreed to temporarily lift the entry ban on him and grant him a social visit pass to make a visit to Singapore between Oct 6 and Oct 8 for the specific purpose of participating in the seminar at Iseas,' the spokesman said.
Born Ong Boon Hua in Sitiawan in Perak, Chin Peng was the key link between the communists' Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army and Britain's Force 136, which was trying to set up intelligence-gathering operations behind Japanese enemy lines during World War II.
And in January 1946, on the steps of the City Hall, he received two awards from Lord Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander for South-east Asia, for his services to the Crown during war.
But he was appointed leader of the CPM a year after receiving that honour.
Chin Peng, who left Singapore on Friday, had said in his memoirs that he fought a 'liberation war', and added: 'To ask whether I would do it again is idle talk. I was a young man in an entirely different setting.'
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4386,277172,00.html?
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