Chin Peng

His father went to live in Sitiawan in 1920.

He set up a bicycle, tire, and spare motor parts business with the help of a relative from Singapore, known as Ong Lock Cho.

Chin Peng attended a Chinese language school in Sitiawan.

Chin Peng (21 October 1924 – 16 September 2013 ), born Ong Boon Hua, was a Malayan communist guerilla leader and politician, who was the long-time leader of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA).

During World War II, he fought as an anti-colonialist guerrilla in the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army against the Japanese occupation of Malaya.

Chin Peng was born Ong Boon Hua on 21 October 1924 into a middle-class family in the small seaside town of Sitiawan, in Perak state, Malaya.

His ancestral home is Fuqing, Fujian, China.

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 Chin and Hack, he was not a communist then.

He was in charge of anti-Japanese activities at his school, and was reportedly a supporter of Sun Yat-sen.

By early 1939, he had embraced Communism.

He 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.

In late 1939, when Chin Peng was in the 4th year of his secondary school education (known as senior middle-level one), 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.

At the end of January 1940, he was admitted to the Malayan Communist Party as a member.

Harassment by the authorities led him to leave his home town for Kuala Kangsar in July 1940.

(This may be at the time when he left his school, refer to above).

Later he spent a month in Taiping.

In September 1940 the party posted him to Ipoh as a Standing committee member for Perak.

In December he attained full Party membership.

In early 1941 AEBUS was dissolved.

Chin Peng became Ipoh District committee member of the Party.

"He led student underground cells of three Chinese secondary schools and the Party's organisations of the shop assistants, domestic servants of European families, workers at brick kilns and barbers."

In June 1941 he became a member of the Perak State Committee.

Chin Peng rose to prominence during World War II when many Chinese Malayans took to the jungle to fight a guerrilla war against the Japanese.

These fighters, inspired by the example of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), became known as the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA).

Chin Peng became the liaison officer between the MPAJA and the British military in South-East Asia.

The Japanese invasion of Malaya began in December 1941.

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.

He led the party's guerrilla insurgency in the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960), fighting against British and Commonwealth forces in an attempt to establish an independent socialist state.

After the MCP's defeat and subsequent Malayan independence, Chin waged a second campaign (1968–1989) from exile against the newly formed government of Malaysia in an attempt to replace its government with a socialist one.

This second insurgency came to an end with the Peace Agreement of Hat Yai 1989.

Chin Peng died at the age of 88, in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was cremated according to Buddhist rites.