Chin Peng

Chin Peng
Leader of the United Malayan Anti-Japanese Front Incumbent
Potential Leader of the Provisional Government of Malaysia
Personal details
Native name	Chin Peng
Date of birth	October 21st, 1924
Place of birth	36 Kampung Koh, Sitiawan, Dindings, Straits Settlements
Age at start	37 years old
Nationality	Malaysian
Role	Leader of the UMAJF
Political party	United Malayan Anti-Japanese Front - Parti Komunis Malaya
Ideology	Mao Zedong Thought

Chin Peng (Chinese: 陳平) (born: 21 October 1924) is the current leader of the United Malayan Anti-Japanese Front, and the chairman of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). Fighting the Japanese since the day the Japanese arrived to the Malayan Peninsula, Chin Peng is one of the few veterans of the pre-war CPM still alive and fighting, continuing the people's struggle against the Empire of Japan.

In Game Description

A man shrouded in myth and lionisation, Chin Peng, born Ong Boon Hua, is the current public enemy number one for the Shonan-Marai Military Government - a hardened, relentless fighter in the thick jungles and hills of central and northern Malaya. Successfully leading the 1957 anti-Japanese revolt amidst the collapse of the Marai Hokokai, Chin Peng has led his Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army through success and failure - a campaign forged in blood with comrades born in fire, as well as comrades of convenience.

However, not all was bright for the hardened guerrilla. The desperate situation in the dark years of 1959-1961 has forced the already-stranded MPAJA to escalate violent raids on villages and settlements along the Thai-Malayan border simply to survive - placing the very settlements the MPAJA claims to protect at the firing line of Japan's ruthless counter-insurgency methods. It seems like time was running out, until Chin Peng received a telegram from fellow resistants within the Askar Wataniah. And thus, the United Malayan Anti-Japanese Front was forged in fire in early 1961.

The insurgency's fortunes quickly shifted, as the Front was able to secure vital ports along the Western Malayan coast - allowing further support from the Republic of India (and some say, a greater benefactor) to aid the Front. A normalisation of relations with anti-Japanese states is a compromise Chin Peng can get behind, though he is not entirely unaware that the non-Communist armed opposition to Japan is growing. Short of seizing power for himself and collapsing the Front, he is forced to scale back his political ambitions: allying with the comparatively moderate Ahmad Boestamam. Boestamam has his own ambitions, but the two are symbiotic for the time being, as Boestamam relies on the MPAJA for muscle, and the MPAJA relies on Boestamam for popular legitimacy.

Biography

Early Years

Chin Peng was born as Ong Boon Hua on 21 October 1924 into a middle-class family in the small seaside town of Sitiawan, Dindings, which at the time was a part of the Straits Settlements. His ancestral home was in Fuqing, Fujian, China. His father went to live in Sitiawan in 1920, and set up a bicycle, tire, and spare motor parts business with the help of a relative from Singapore.

Chin Peng would attend a Chinese language school in Sitiawan. In 1937 he joined the Chinese Anti Enemy Backing Up Society (AEBUS), formed that year to send aid to China in response to Japan's aggression. According to intelligence reports, he had not taken up the communist ideology then. He was in charge of anti-Japanese activities at his school, and was reportedly a supporter of Sun Yat-sen.

First participation in Communism

By early 1939, Chin had embraced communism after reading Mao's book "On Protracted War", eventually embracing the ideology of Maoism. He had planned to go to Yan'an, the renowned communist base in China but was persuaded to remain in Malaya and take on heavier responsibilities in the newly formed Malayan Communist Party. It was also in this period of time that Chin decided to dedicate his efforts to fight the Japanese.

In late 1939, when Chin Peng was in the 4th year of his secondary school education, his school announced that the senior middle section was to be closed due to lack of funds. He decided to continue his education in the Methodist-run Anglo-Chinese Continuation School, which operated in English, because it provided a good cover for his underground activities. He did not want to have to move to Singapore to continue with his education in Chinese. He left the school "for fear of British harassment" after just 6 months.

He was now focused fully on his political activities and became, from that point on, a full-time revolutionary. In January 1940 he was put in charge of three anti-Japanese organisations that were targeting students, teachers, members of cultural activities, and general labourers for support. At the end of January 1940, he was admitted to the Malayan Communist Party as a member.

Pre-War Revolutionary Activities

After some harassment by the authorities due to his revolutionary activities, Chin Peng decided to leave his home town for Kuala Kangsar in July 1940. Later he spent a month in Taiping. In September 1940, the party posted him to Ipoh as a standing committee member for Perak. By December that year, he attained full party membership.

In early 1941 AEBUS was dissolved, however, by then Chin Peng had rose through the ranks, becoming part of Ipoh District Committee. It was here that he led student underground cells of three Chinese secondary schools and the Party's organisations of the working class citizens.

In June 1941, he became a member of the Perak State Committee, establishing himself as a medium level functionary within the pre-war CPM organisation.

World War II

The Japanese Invasion of Malaya would see Chin Peng rise further through the ranks.

When Singapore fell, a prominent member of the CPM, Lai Teck was arrested by the Japanese and became their agent. On 1 September 1942, acting on his information, the Japanese launched a dawn raid on a secret conference of more than 100 CPM and MPAJA leaders at the Batu Caves just north of Kuala Lumpur, killing most of it's pre-war leadership. Chin was not present at this raid, and was eventually asked to fill in the spaces of his fallen comrades.

In 1942, Chin was the youngest of three members of the Secretariat of the Perak State Committee: Su Yew Meng was secretary and Chang Meng Ching was the other member. In early 1943 the two senior members were captured by the Japanese, which left Chin Peng in charge. Contact with the Party's Central Committee had been lost; he attempted to re-establish it, travelling to Kuala Lumpur and meeting Chai Ker Meng. Later, party leader Lai Tek sent another Central Committee member, Lee Siow Peng (Siao Ping), to replace Chin as State Secretary. However, Lee Siow Peng was captured not long after while travelling to a meeting that was to be held in Singapore.

From May 1943, British commandos from Force 136 infiltrated Malaya and attempted to made contact with the guerillas. Thus the job of establishing contact with the British commando Force 136 fell to Chin Peng. The first party of that force, consisting of Captain John Davis and five Chinese agents had landed in Malaya on 24 May 1943, by submarine. Chin Peng made contact with the group on 30 September 1943. He was active in his support for the British stay-behind troops but had no illusions about their failure to protect Malaya against the Japanese.

Early in 1944 an agreement was reached whereby the MPAJA would accept some direction from the Allied South East Asia Command (SEAC) and the Allies would give the MPAJA weapons and supplies. It was not until the spring of 1945, however, that significant amounts of material began to arrive by air drop. By then, it was too late, London was in trouble from Axis attack, the Raj had collapsed and the only supply route was through rough seas from Australia. Force 136 and the MPAJA decided to fold itself together, similar to the United Front in China.

By the war's end, the MPAJA had amassed much strength in the villages and cities, and occasionally launched raids on Japanese garrisons to harass and disturb the Japanese. This in turn made the Japanese avoid the jungle's periphery, for fear of resistance raids.

By 1946, the MPAJA had found evidence of Lai Teck's betrayal after a raid on Kempetai Headquarters. Tek, had turned out to be an agent for both the British and the Japanese and had denounced the leadership of the party to the Japanese secret police. Lai Teck would flee to Thailand with most of the party's finances, however, he would be executed by Viet Minh guerillas.

Chin Peng was elected the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Malaya after that, consolidating and reorganising his forces in the depths of the jungle where the Japanese did not dare enter.

Post War and the Malayan Revolt.

By 1957, as the Japanese handed over the responsibility of administration to the Malayan Collaborationist Government, and in the failure of unpopular talks between an Indonesian-Malayan Union, Chin Peng would begin the Malayan Revolt, with an open declaration and radio broadcast of a general uprising against the Japanese Empire and its puppets, and restarting the armed struggle.

Upon the signal, armed guerilla groups and sleeper cells planted in cities took up in arms against the Japanese garrisons. Soon, the entire peninsula was up in arms. Police, collaborationists and garrisons either surrendered or faced annihilation. Success in the states of Pahang, Perak and Johore, as major cities were captured without a fight. However, the 25th Army was coming back with a vengenance.

Soon, gains were reversed in months as the MPAJA fought Japanese troops in running battles. Cities and states were retaken, and the MPAJA found itself back at the Thai-Malayan border, with it's cells going back underground in the cities. Seeing this desperate situation, Chin Peng would organise a base defense area around the little bit of territory he owned in Taiping, ensuring that the Japanese would die in droves trying to take the fortress.

By 1961, the MPAJA was strained. Despite help from the OFN, many of it's troops were demoralised, the infrastructure was dismal, and now driven back to the countryside. However, hope would come after Askar Wataniah, a Malay resistance group, led by General Yeop Mahidin reached out to Chin Peng. Soon, an agreement was signed in Taiping, and the merger of both resistance groups would birth the United Malayan Anti Japanese Front (UMAJF)

Seen as the pragmatic figure, Chin Peng was asked to lead the new organisation, and continue the fight against the Japanese. Now at the age 37, Chin Peng has fought the Japanese ever since he was 17. An old soldier. Time will tell if he succeeds driving them out of Malaya.