Ex-communist leader returns to S'pore

Ex-communist leader returns to S'pore

SINGAPORE: Singapore temporarily lifted a ban on a Malaysian former communist leader who once led an armed struggle against British colonial rule, allowing him to speak at a seminar here last week, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Ong Boon Hua, better known as Chin Peng, visited the city- state from Oct. 6-8 to speak at a closed-door seminar at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, the Straits Times said.

Chin Peng, who turns 80 later this month, was considered a hero during World War II when he joined British and local resistance fighters in their struggle against the Japanese occupation of what is now known as peninsula Malaysia and Singapore.

He received two awards for his services to the crown.

But he later became secretary-general of the Communist Party of Malaya and in 1948 was banned from Singapore for leading a bloody rebellion against the British.

The communist struggle lost steam after the 1950s, though it continued to simmer for decades on the Malay peninsula. It didn't officially end until 1989 when the Malaysian government and the communist rebels signed a truce that led to the movement being disarmed and disbanded. --AP