Chin Peng

Chin Peng
OBE[a]
陳平
Portrait, c. late-1940s.
Secretary-General of the
Communist Party of Malaya
In office
6 March 1947 – 2 December 1989
Preceded byLai Teck
Succeeded byNone (party dissolved)
Personal details
Born
Ong Boon Hua

(1924-10-21)21 October 1924
36 Kampung Koh, Sitiawan, Dindings, Straits Settlements
Died16 September 2013(2013-09-16) (aged 88)
Bumrungrad International Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand
Resting placeChemor, Perak, Malaysia
NationalityMalayan
Political partyCommunist Party of Malaya
Spouse
Lee Khoon Wah
​
​
(m. 1945; died 2008)​
Children2
Parents
  • Ong Sing Piaw (father)
  • Kuan Kheng Bee (mother)
Signature

Chin Peng[b] (21 October 1924 – 16 September 2013), born Ong Boon Hua,[c] OBE[a] was a Malayan communist politician, guerrilla leader, and revolutionary, who was the leader and commander of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA). A Maoist, he led the CPM as secretary general from 1947 until the party's dissolution in 1989.[3]

Chin was born into a middle-class family in Sitiawan, now a part of Perak. In 1939, at the age of 15, he became a revolutionary and fled to Kuala Lumpur in 1940. He joined the CPM in 1941, and quickly involved himself in local party committees and labour unions in Perak.[4] Throughout the Second World War, Chin fought as an anti-colonialist guerrilla in the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) against the Japanese occupation of Malaya, allying with Force 136, a British-funded covert resistance movement in Asia. He was subsequently awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

As the most senior surviving member of the CPM to emerge from the war, he founded the MNLA and engaged in a guerrilla war known as the Malayan Emergency against the British Empire and Commonwealth forces between 1948 and 1960, in a failed attempt to establish an independent Marxist–Leninist state in Malaya. His actions led to the revocation of his OBE. After the British–led independence of Malaya and the defeat of the CPM, Chin went into exile in China, then Thailand, and waged a second guerrilla campaign between 1968 and 1989 against the now independent Malaysian government. This campaign did not succeed, and ended with a final peace agreement in 1989, which dissolved the CPM permanently. He was however not permitted to return, and Chin died in exile in Bangkok, Thailand in 2013; he was 88.

Chin is considered one of the most controversial political figures in Malayan history. His detractors condemned him and the MNLA for committing numerous atrocities during the Emergency, and characterised him as an ideological fanatic and terrorist.[5][6][7][8] However, he was also credited for contributing towards the Malayan independence process, and was seen as a prominent rebel leader and anti-imperialist against colonialism in Malaya.[9][10][11] He was the last surviving postwar revolutionary leader to have successfully fought for independence from colonialism in Asia.[12]


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  1. ^ "Dead or Alive", Time, (12 May 1952)
  2. ^ van der Vat, Dan (22 September 2013). "Chin Peng obituary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  3. ^ "Chin Peng, 90 dies in Bangkok Hospital". New Straits Times. 16 September 2013. Archived from the original on 16 September 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  4. ^ van der Vat, Dan (22 September 2013). "Chin Peng obituary". The Guardian.
  5. ^ Ramakrishna, Kumar (30 September 2013). "Chin Peng: A fanatic but no hero". Today.
  6. ^ Ignatius, Dennis (30 November 2019). "Chin Peng: Lies, bigotry and double standards". Free Malaysia Today.
  7. ^ Khong, Kim Hoong (23 September 2013). "Chin Peng, anti-colonial revolt and Merdeka". MalaysiaKini.
  8. ^ Bernstein, Adam (16 September 2013). "Chin Peng, Malaysian guerrilla who led long, brutal fight against British colonial rulers, dies". The Washington Post.
  9. ^ Lee, Ban Chen (2 June 2009). "Who is to be blamed - Chin Peng or Tunku?". MalaysiaKini.
  10. ^ Choo, Chan Kai (17 September 2013). "Chin Peng and our true anti-colonial struggle". MalaysiaKini.
  11. ^ Kua, Kia Soong (28 November 2019). "Chin Peng's ashes and the Hitler salute". Free Malaysia Today.
  12. ^ Martin, Douglas (16 September 2013). "Chin Peng, Malaysian Rebel, Dies at 88". The New York Times.