Georeactor Blog

With a final push today, and on a train from NYC to Vermont, I've finished both "Lianda" and "Alias: Chin Peng". The former could maybe be worked into a future Hacker News-y post, but let's get the latter, deeper decolonialization read reviewed:

Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History (Chin Peng, 2003)

The Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) was on the periphery but mostly missing from A Continent Erupts. After looking over a few books with mid reviews or limited availability, I found Chin Peng's memoir of being a communist leader fighting Japanese, British, and then Malaysian forces. The cover includes a newspaper front page calling him "Public Enemy №1".
After a long-delayed peace agreement 1989, Chin had history on his mind, and visited foreign archives for military records and media reports. As best I can tell, this BBC documentary led to a 1998 invitation to the UK by the documentarians and/or by Neal Ascherson, a veteran and journalist who had covered the Emergency.

Ian Ward, a former Southeast Asia correspondent who had once been kidnapped while trying to interview Chin, reached out to collaborate on a memoir, as long as it would be personal and not a political polemic. In the foreword/preface, Chin credits Ward's wife, Norma Miraflor, for editing and mediating between the two writers.

Background

Chin's parents met in Singapore after immigrating from mainland China. Their house in Malaysia is classic Peranakan Chinese. The street address is not Googleable, but I was able to use a sign in a photo to locate it on StreetView today (near Sitiawan Shop 实兆远商店).
His brother inherited the family's bicycle shop. Chin did accounting for a while, then planned to study in Singapore. As Japan invaded China, the community was engaged in fundraisers, military recruitment, and political discussion. The most convincing for a young Chin Peng (then Ong Boon Hua) was Mao's writing on guerilla tactics and a "people's war". A departing teacher let teenage Chin know that he was the local leader of the Communist party (CPM), an illegal organization founded with help from Ho Chi Minh. Chin was thus selected to be a local contact. Once the police were onto this fact, Chin could never return home, so he traveled to a few different safehouses before picking his alias and landing in Ipoh, ~45 miles away.

In the Ipoh years and occupation, Chin met his wife, Lee Khoon Wah. As a teenager in Penang, Lee was expelled from two schools for communist beliefs, so they're a good match. Chin mentions that the CPM required members to report relationships and get approval, which feels weirdly modern?

Japanese occupation

In the final days of the Japanese invasion, communists were freed from prisons in Malaysia and Singapore, and encouraged to form guerilla units.
John L. H. Davis arrived in occupied Malaysia by submarine, and set up an agreement with Chin Peng and the then-leader of the communists, Lai Te ("Lai Teck" on Wikipedia), to train fighters. Smuggling a radio from the shore to their camp took over a year, frustrating the Brits.

From the New York Times, 1955 (possibly confusing John Davis and Richard Broome as one person)

[Davis Broome], now Singapore's defense counselor, who was then with the British landing party, recalls that Chin was always straightforward in stating his views toward British imperialism and that he made it plain that after the war ended the Communists would rebel against the British Administration in an effort to liberate all of Malaya.

Chin was unhappy that the British were relying on China's Nationalists (Kuomintang) for translators and operations in Malaysia.
The war taught the Communists how to be effective guerillas. Ethnic Chinese soldiers were divided into units by their dialect. They lived in simple shelters near sympathetic, ethnically Chinese villages. When someone was captured and gave up information under torture, they would be allowed to return only if they returned with information and proved their loyalty. Groups which rejected Marxism or took part in banditry would be disowned, and villages would call on the CPM to protect them.

The Allies parachuted in over a hundred operatives for an invasion, but at the time of the Japan's surrender, the main landing was still three weeks away. It was unclear if Japanese troops would walk away peacefully. There was also racial violence in these weeks - I cannot find a reference for this, but Chin estimates 1,000 deaths in a conflict between the Malay and Chinese of Batu Pahat. The British officers showed an inability to police or understand the fighting.

As mentioned in A Continent Erupts, an independence conference with Malay nationalists was convening just as Japan's surrender was announced. Within hours, Japanese units also approached the CPM about joining forces. Some were hidden by the communists for years, and went to fight in China. Some were framed as holdouts who needed help from their families, and others were deemed a risk and executed. Many of their weapons were transferred to communists stashes. Years later, a Japanese operative is credited for helping the CPM build landmines.
After peace with Japan, Lai Te would urge their guerillas to disband, and switch their focus to trade unions, making peace with the colonial government in exchange for no longer being an illegal organization. There is a brief mention of this maybe being a rational caution after war had broken out in Vietnam and Indonesia.

Re Japanese holdouts: an article about two soldiers who fought with the CPM and only returned to Japan after the peace agreement in 1990: https://www.deseret.com/1990/1/12/18840861/2-japanese-emerge-after-45-years-of-fighting-with-guerrillas-in-jungle/

Davis would wire a warning to his bosses about retaining the guerillas' trust, which was dismissed as him 'going native'. He did manage to organize an awards ceremony to appeal to the group.
Despite Chin's ideological disappointment, he would dutifully report to Morib Beach to witness the British army's return, and then to Singapore to receive the medal.

From WWII to Emergency

As the Communists and United Malays National Organization (UMNO) protested the new British colonial system of 1946, tensions were high. One member of the leadership Yeung Kwo was effectively banished to Penang. At his next meeeting with Chin, he reveals the unthinkable - their leader Lai Te is a spy. When the regional parties compared notes, he had too many narrow escapes, lies, wives, and funds. Chin Peng visited the Vietnamese community in Singapore, which confirmed their suspicions.
There was no epic confrontation - Lai Te failed to turn up at a scheduled meeting. Chin spent over a month in Thailand (where he spotted Lai Te on the street) and Hong Kong (where an alias appeared on a ship manifest). His version of the story is that he alerted Vietnamese communists to Lai Te's return to Bangkok, then he got ambushed and dumped into a canal. After confirming his death, Chin can return home to meet his newborn son and consider an unexpected offer: an OBE.

New York Times, 1955:

At one time praised and held up as "Britain's most trusted guerrilla" against the Japanese during World War II, Chin was honored with an appointment to Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He was not presented with the award, however, because he directed a revolt against the British before the decoration arrived in Singapore.

Chin's version of the story was that he asked colleagues what to do and decided not to reply, and that was seen as a grave insult. Considering the NYT's other mistakes, I'll take it straight from the source.

Looking back decades later, Chin complains that Western historians got many details wrong - for example, describing this leadership conflict with Lai Te as one between 'dove' and 'hawk' members of the party.
After a party meeting had agreed on killing strikebreakers, Chin believes that individual units jumped to attacking planters and miners before their network was fully ready. He had no prior knowledge of the attack which would start the Emergency, almost getting captured in the following hours. It would take months of walking for all parties to regroup at a safe camp in the center of peninsular Malaysia.
Fearful landowners called on the colonial government to suppress the communists with the same hardliner tactics which had been used (and failed) in India. Chin credits colonial leadership in this phase of the conflict for not overextending themselves and raising sympathy in the wider population.

The colonial government ultimately set up New Villages as concentration camps for 400,000–500,000 ethnic Chinese people. When I read about this at a museum in Malacca, my impression was that this might be collective punishment, to stop clashes between racial groups, or to stop people from arming themselves. But Chin Peng primarily talks about this as disrupting their source of food and supplies. Many villages were set up with communal kitchens and careful rationing to avoid any diversion of resources. The 200 soldiers in the CPM's main group split into smaller units which struggled to live off the jungle. They researched what plants could be made edible, and asked China about making plants such as rubber trees edible.

Newsreel about New Villages from the Imperial War Museum

In 1953, the Australian Air Force came close to wiping out the CPM leadership. They retreated into southern Thailand (where there were and continue to be conflicts between the Thai government and separatists). CPM appealed to local officials by pushing out bandit groups, including some former KMT soldiers. Though their protection was never guaranteed, CPM stayed far enough from the border that British patrols could not follow them, and the Thai government would give advance notice of military actions.
To be honest the Thailand arrangement remains confusing after reading the book? For example, the CPM was frequently in touch with local communists, who the Thai government was trying to suppress.

Baling Talks

During a break in communications, Chin's deputy expressed openness to negotiations. The party also shifted goals from a one-party People's Republic to a diverse democracy. Chin expresses some regret for taking time to arrive at these goals. There had been a few efforts, such as a 1950 project to recruit 500 Malay soldiers, but they all deserted after an ambush.
After Tunku swept Malaysian elections in 1955, he began working toward independence to take place in 1957. Chin and the CPM were skeptical that this would happen on time, but were willing to participate in peace talks in Baling. His war buddy John Davis met him at the edge of the forest, and guided him to a school.

Time Magazine article at the time: https://time.com/archive/6804303/malaya-waiting-on-lefty/

No longer the slight, pimply youth of the World War II underground, Chin was now a pudgy, soft-faced 34. Laughing, he shook hands with Davis. Said Davis, in Chinese: “Long time no see.”

And there is a museum on Google Maps: "Galeri rundingan baling"

At the end of the negotiations, Davis stayed with Chin Peng all night to discuss the possibility of visiting the CPM compound, or continuing direct negotiations over radio. This was surprising, but never pursued.
They would meet one more time in 1998. A letter would be read at Davis's funeral in 2006.

...when I visited the United Kingdom in 1998, I sought out my old friend John Davis. It was my way of showing my deep gratitude for a man who, despite being vehemently opposed to my anti-British colonial struggle, always treated me fairly and decently.
You cannot ask more of a man or a friend. John Davis is a great loss to this troubled world.
One final thought. When John and I got together in Britain that day in 1998 he gently laid down the ground rules for our reunion. "Chin Peng," he said, "let’s just talk about the good old days."
And that is how I will always remember him –– John Davis in the good old days.

Out of Chin's description of the Baling Talks in this book, I see two problems. One was the timing: too early for Malaysia to act with credible independence, too late for the guerillas to claim a functioning institution within Malaysia.
The other was the demands placed on the CPM: surrender, internment, questioning, and possible deportation. There was no route offered to resume life as a political party, and CPM fighters were already exiled to Thailand, so they chose not to surrender.

Thailand and China

In the years around independence, the remaining fighters in Malaysia were pulled out of the forest by local troops and propaganda, including a multilingual leaflet which fighters could use to surrender. The CPM established some business fronts in Thailand, financial aid from China, and stepped back from fighting. In 1961, Chin Peng visited Vietnam, China, and the USSR (along with other Southeast Asian communist parties). The Vietnamese were disappointed by the CPM's planned move away from an armed movement, as the conflict with South Vietnam and the US became more severe. Insiders now revealed to Chin that the Great Leap Forward had failed in famine, and that Stalinism was being denounced. The new Soviet premier, Khrushchev, was at odds with the Chinese. This was troubling and divisive for the representatives of smaller countries.

During the 1960s, the CPM group became invested in the Cultural Revolution as a return to political ideals and infiltrating Malaysian territory. While Chin was away in China, many new recruits and even elders in leadership were executed for spying. Divisions created two alternate party leaders. Chin Peng also met Pol Pot and visited Cambodia, but noticed that ethnic Chinese there were too fearful to speak with him.

After years of negotiation, Chin Peng was given a radio station in Hunan to broadcast propaganda in 1969. This became an exciting project (and perhaps refuge) for CPM members and educated Chinese, and expanded to (in Chin's view) speakers of too many dialects. The next-gen communist groups sent representatives to Beijing, where Chin Peng was asked to help them reconcile, endorse their purges, and/or select an official successor. He declined to speak without the Central Committee, frustrating everyone.

Peace

After the Thai military attempted a crackdown on the CPM, they decided to instead end the conflict through mediation. After rival groups gave up the fight to the Thais in 1987, Siao Chang led a new round of negotiations. Chin Peng was away in China, but following closely until invited for the final negotiations. There is a mention here of the negotiations being videotaped for all sides, which is a technological innovation for the late 80s, but it isn't clear what the role of this change was.
Members of the CPM who remained in Thailand were given some land and a small allowance. These Peace Villages were supported in part by Thailand's Princess Chulabhorn. Chin Peng made an effort to get documents and recognition for many CPM members and families who had been in China for a long time, but many ethnic Chinese who had been deported to China for political reasons were left out of the agreement. After reaching an agreement to sell their remaining weapons to the Thai government, the CPM officially ceased operations in 1992.

In a final section, Chin Peng considers the trip he would make to his hometown in Malaysia. But emphasizes "I had to be a liberation fighter," and that he grew up in "a different world" where fighting was a necessity. This section has a couple of things to say about the peace process which are difficult to unentangle - clearly the Baling talks could not make a favorable end to the war for the CPM, so he cannot fully admit to regretting their failure. But he also wants to take credit for influencing Malaysia's path to independence - Tunku would write "Baling led straight to Merdeka [independence]" assumedly from the UK's desire to find a friendly post-colonial leader.

Death

Chin Peng moved from China to one of the Peace Villages in southern Thailand in 1994, and never returned to Malaysia. He died in 2013. His ashes were forbidden from repatriation.

Many other CPM leaders also remained in southern Thailand for the rest of their lives. There's a museum there today (Peace Village, Yarom on Google Maps).

Supporters did sneak Chin's ashes into Malaysia for a small ceremony in late 2019. Some participants were later questioned by police.

Notes

In 1946, the party embraced Malaysian Chinese as an ethnic identity instead of Overseas Chinese. This and the New Villages program continue to have an impact on Chinese identity in Malaysia.

There was an interesting tactic of shipping TB patients to China where they could receive better treatment, but also to build up a diplomatic link and gain political education. I am interested in the idea of several 'embassies' of communist parties and rebel movements set up in the same neighborhood or apartment block.

In a section about two women who worked as couriers, there's a mention of support by Dingle Mackintosh Foot (??) who would later be knighted and serve as Solicitor General of England and Wales. Detail on Lee Meng's case. This book revealed for the first time details of her background as a courier, and her life after exile to China. In 2007 she visited Malaysia and was able to thank one of her lawyers.

In 2014, a mural in Ipoh was changed after people compared the figure to Chin Peng.

One of the British advisors, Spencer Chapman, wrote The Jungle is Neutral (1949) about the WWII period. For a conflict without a lot of books, this seems to have the most reviews on GoodReads, many about discovering their relatives' role in the conflict. Journalist Noel Barber wrote The War of the Running Dogs (1971) on the Emergency, and reviews are less positive these days.
Chin Peng's book was controversial but successful in Malaysia and Singapore. One review for Alias: Chin Peng reads, "this should be required reading to supplement what we were taught as history in public schools".
Defending the book project, co-author Ian Ward would say "The world doesn't yet appreciate how appalling colonialism could be." He and his wife later wrote Slaughter and deception at Batang Kali about a 1948 massacre. Even Chin Peng had limited information about this until 1970, when UK media was tipped off about "Britain's My Lai".

Notes from Previous Reads

The news that Iran would "electronically" sign a peace deal made me wonder if diplomats have special VeriSign-like apps which allow Iranian IPs, or if they just use Zoom and PDFs like your average co-op? Is there a diplomatic body which cares how things are signed, or is it up to the negotiating team's IT department?

I watched a 2018 documentary about Junko Mizuta, a patient with short-term memory loss (YouTube algo was recommending it to a lot of people, though no one knows why). Mizuta can follow conversations and deliver speeches by taking notes. She meets someone with the condition who doesn't use this technique, and notices that he repeats the same conversation points. The notebook thus is a benefit to others who want to have a real conversation, and for Mizuta it's more for stability? Despite many scenes with her re-organizing previous notes, she can't really pause and search it effectively.
I searched in English and Japanese, saw one lecture flyer, but couldn't find anything new from the past ~9 years.

Malaysia's Tugu Negara (National Monument) was opened in 1966 as a memorial for World War II and the Emergency. In 1975 it was damaged by a communist guerilla. During the 1989 negotiations Chin Peng wanted to demolish the statue or acknowledge communists' contributions, and the Malaysians suggested generic figures from three races.
Crown Prince Naruhito visited the monument in 2017 (he's now Emperor) and last October, there was a visit by the Japanese PM. But this monument has actually fallen out of favor with Islamic and government leaders since 2010.

Very annoying LuddAnon episode where someone tweeted that rsync was being messed up by 'vibe coding', a screenshot was posted as a GitHub Issue, and then multiple people began using the issue to complain, troll, and score points on other platforms. No one reported a specific technical failure, evidence that rsync was responsible, or connection of an rsync bug to an AI commit.
People on a vibes train hate thinking about this!
Even if everyone was 100% right, the person who posted the issue never experienced or understood the problem. How can they say when their issue is resolved?
Maintainer's blog post: https://medium.com/@tridge60/rsync-and-outrage-d9849599e5a0

I'm catching up on BobbyBroccoli's series about Rob Ford's time as mayor of Toronto. Prequel to Doug Ford's interest in Toronto's new waterfront development, and Canada's bike lane politics which I hear about on urbanism YouTube. One of the issues is that (similar to the onetime US political obsession with earmarks, pork, and special interest groups), whose budget items make up a small percentage compared to social services, entitlements, the military, etc.
The same channel has a video about the Utah cold fusion craze of 1989. Doing a little googling after, there is a bizarre Jeffrey Epstein email thread where he claims to have "killed" Pons's research, and that he met the head of the Mormon church.

The 'Depths of Wikipedia' account pointed out that the article on President Truman uses a period ("S."), and urges editors not to try changing it. The official historic site does not use a dot, though his signature often does have one.

Citizen's "Explore" map got removed from public view. It was sometimes useful to find out what sirens were for, and once I saw a police call from people locked in the zoo after closing! They never fixed their cities dropdown though.

In NYC I visited "I'm donut?", a Korean chain which makes nama donuts. From a little research online, their unusual texture comes from squash, and are completely different from the now ubiquitous "mochi donut". I got two basic sweet donuts which had a good chewiness and flavor. The menu includes some custard-filled options, seasonal options, and (incomprehensible to me) savory options such as "anchovy cheese" and scrambled egg with mayo.

Surprised to see a recent "Mormon Stories" video had a few comments about leaving the church due to recommending vaccines? Is that a real trend? Also disappointed that the account hearted a comment which linked gay couples' adoption rights to fears of grooming.

Someone in the Wikipedia subreddit frequently posts articles about people who were recruited by ISIS, meaning that they usually disappeared or died 10 years ago. Some can be interesting psychological profiles (a group of medical students, who were studying in Sudan after failing to get accepted by the British system). But I don't want to see these pushed every week.

Media

Netflix had a trailer for Louis CK's new special, the latest step in reversing his cancellation. Netflix seems to prioritize clicks and watching hours over social pressure, even when employees did a walkout over Dave Chapelle. It's a different level of re-acceptance though, compared to Riyadh or some podcast?

On YouTube, I usually put an 'end screen' with a subscribe button and an algorithmically-suggested next video. This is rarely clicked, but might be more accessible for TV and mobile viewers? When the Glacier Rock video was popular, I tried using this to promote longer, now-dormant videos. Oddly the algorithm started recommending these videos again, but mostly in search results. It's only a few people so I don't see their search terms, but interesting effect nonetheless.

Maybe Happy Ending update: understudy Savy Jackson took over as robot 'Claire' for the first time in the middle of a show. She also performed the next day. Reaction on the subreddit was positive.
The show's YouTube channel released a video which includes her and actors returning from pre-Broadway work on the show.

On a plane I saw Malaysian film Pavane for an Infant. It doesn't have a regular structure, but there is a strong throughline of women's issues set around a controversial 'baby drop' facility. The movie also wants to say something about race, adoption, intersex people, the matrilineal Minangkabau ethnic group, blaming problems on covid lockdowns, and non-Muslims eating during Ramadan. I should've expected trouble after the two main characters bonded over their film classes, but it was the right length movie for me to watch and puzzle over.

Also saw Cold Storage on a plane. The trailer was good, but the movie's theatrical run was so underwhelming, it got included in a Red Letter Media montage. I was not expecting the first 15 minutes to be The Andromeda Strain? Or a confusing time jump from 2007 to 2026. They had smartphones and body cams… how am I supposed to buy that was The Distant Past? Especially when the government lab set is so old and abandoned.

I watched a little of the new season of Couples Therapy but didn't finish it. It's always a difficult show to watch, but the subreddit is embroiled in changes after the show filmed. One couple split with someone transitioning (the subreddit is moving away from the name and pronouns used on the show). And the husband of a politically divided couple recently denounced Trump for some reason (sorry, I can't be curious about this).