Jump to content

Lai Teck

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lai Teck
Portrait,c.late-1930s.
Secretary-General ofCommunist Party of Malaya
In office
April 1939 – 6 March 1947
Preceded byYang Shaomin
Succeeded byChin Peng
Personal details
Born
Hoang A Nhac[1]or Phạm Văn Đắc[2]

1901(1901)[3]
Nghệ Tĩnh Province,Annam[4]
(According to Vietnamese historians:Bà Rịa,French Cochinchina)[5]
Died6 March 1947 (aged 45–46)
Bangkok,Thailand
Cause of deathSuffocation
Resting placeMenam River
Political partyCommunist Party of Malaya
Other political
affiliations		Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army
OccupationPolitician, spy
Other namesLai Tek, Loi Tak, Lee Soong,[3]Wong Kim Geok,[6]Chang Hung, Mr. Wright[7]

Lai Teck(real namePhạm Văn Đắc;1901–1947) was a leader of theCommunist Party of MalayaandMalayan People's Anti-Japanese Army.A person of mixedSino-Vietnamese descent,[7][8]prior to his arrival in Malaya, Lai Teck was believed to have led his life asTruong Phuoc Datuntil 1934, during which Dat disappeared and Lai Teck appeared.[9]

Biography[edit]

Lai Teck was a shadowy character whose real name and background are unknown. He was believed to be born under the name ofHoang A NhacorPhạm Văn Đắcin theBà Rịa(nowBà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province) in 1901.[2]According to his successorChin Peng,he curiously chose the party alias 'Wright' which, given the Chinese pronunciation of English words beginning with the letter 'r' soon became distorted to Lai Te. This was further mangled, depending on who was writing or speaking English, to 'Loi Teck', 'Lai Teck' and 'Lighter'.[10]

Lai Teck was believed to have served theFrenchas a spy in Indochina but been uncovered. It was subsequently alleged that he was recruited by the British security services and brought to Singapore in 1934 to infiltrate theCommunist Party of Malaya.

At this he was highly successful, and by using the colonial police force to pick off his rivals within the Party he rose through the hierarchy and attained the Communist Party of Malaya leadership as its secretary general in April 1939.[11]Perhaps because of this, he steered the Party on a course of non-confrontation with the British and wholly embraced theCommunist International's new line of co-operation with theUnited Statesand theWestern Europeanpowers againstNazi GermanyandJapan.

Although many of the CPM's top personnel managed to fleeSingaporebefore itscapture by Japanese forces,Lai Teck did not and was picked up in a Japanese sweep shortly after in early March 1942. Although most communists were executed by the Japanese, Lai Teck walked free a few days later. Based on later evidence, including documents in Japanese archives, it now appears most likely that Lai Teck saved his life by promising to act as a Japanese agent.

In August 1942 Lai Teck arranged for a full meeting which included the CPM's Central Executive Committee, state party officials, and a group leaders of the MPAJA to be held at theBatu Caves,about ten miles north fromKuala Lumpur.On 1 September 1942, more than 100 senior CPM and MPAJA members gathered at a small village near the Caves for a secret conference, the Japanese staged a surprise raid at dawn. In the ensuing lopsided skirmish most of the CPM and MPAJA high command were destroyed. Lai Teck, who should have been at the meeting, wasn't. Subsequently, he claimed that he had been unable to attend because his car broke down.

The MCP adopted a new party program after the end ofWorld War IIand the liberation of Malaya from Japanese forces. Seeking to reconcile its own goals and that of the British, which had provided the MCP with training, and logistical and material support during theJapanese occupation of Malaya,the new program sought an alliance with Allied forces and called for self-governance with the aim of eventually achieving independence, going against the party's wartime policy, which had advocated independence upon the expulsion of Japan. In an accompanying document, Lai Teck placed emphasis on the party's political struggle, arguing that if the party were to "adopt armed struggle immediately we would become isolated and alienated from the people. This is a kind of leftistBlanquistrevolutionary action that is not suitable for the present circumstances... ".[12]

While the true scope of opposition to Lai Teck and the new program remains unclear, scholar Marc H. Opper concludes that it had reached a level that required direct refutation by the party's leadership (i.e., Lai Teck), and that the a split had occurred over the party's new direction. For example, an incident where the Kedah state committee opted to enforce the party's wartime program required the intervention ofChin Pengat the behest of Lai Teck, who managed to resolve the conflict peacefully.[13]

Disappearance[edit]

In 1946, faint rumours which had been circulating within the party about disloyalty on the part of Lai Teck began to receive more substantiation. This was exacerbated by the restlessness of the rank and file, especially the younger members, who favoured radical action. Lai Teck was removed from some sensitive posts, and an investigation was begun into his activities. A full meeting of the Central Executive Committee was scheduled for 6 March 1947 at which the complaints against Lai Teck were to be aired in his presence. Lai Teck did not attend but instead absconded with the bulk of the Party's funds, hiding first in Singapore, then going to Hong Kong and later to Thailand.[14]

Aftermath[edit]

With Lai Teck gone, the party elected a new leader, Chin Peng. According to Chin Peng, he personally went to Bangkok and Hong Kong in 1947, contacted the communist party organizations there and asked them to help him to track down and kill Lai Teck; both the Vietnamese and Thai communists assisted Chin Peng in the manhunt;[14]and eventually, Chin Peng was told by the Thai Communist leader that Lai Teck was accidentally killed in Bangkok some time when three Thai Communists tried to capture him. Reportedly, Lai Teck was suffocated during the struggle, after which his body was put into agunny sackand tossed into theMenam River.[14][15]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic SocietyVolume 83, Part 2, September 2010, No. 299 E-ISSN2180-4338PrintISSN0128-5483doi:10.1353/ras.2010.0005
  2. ^ab"Nguyễn Ái Quốc: Người chủ chốt sáng lập Đảng Cộng sản Malaysia".19 May 2016. Archived fromthe originalon 15 June 2017.Retrieved25 September2018.
  3. ^abRobert Payne(1951).Red storm over Asia.Macmillan.p. 288.
  4. ^University of Madras(1980).The Indian Year Book of International Affairs.University of Madras.p. 406.
  5. ^"Người Việt là Tổng Bí thư đầu tiên Đảng Cộng sản Malaysia".Dân Trí.Retrieved3 February2016.
  6. ^Constance Mary Turnbull (1989).A History of Singapore, 1819-1988.Oxford University Press.p. 147.ISBN0-19-588911-8.
  7. ^abCheah Boon Kheng (1992).From Pki to the Comintern, 1924-1941.SEAP Publications. p. 28.ISBN0-87727-125-9.
  8. ^Carl A. Trocki (2005).Singapore: Wealth, Power And The Culture Of Control.Routledge.p. 103.ISBN0-415-26385-9.
  9. ^Judge, Sophie Quinn,Ho Chi Minh: The Missing Years, 1919-1941,C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2003,ISBN1850656584
  10. ^Chin Peng,My Side of History,as told to Ian Ward and Norman Miraflor, Media Masters, Singapore, 2003, p 58.
  11. ^Cheah Boon Kheng (1992).From Pki to the Comintern, 1924-1941.SEAP Publications. pp. 26–7.ISBN0-87727-125-9.
  12. ^Opper, Marc H.; Galway, Matthew.Experiments with Marxism-Leninism in Cold War Southeast Asia.ANU Press. p. 204.ISBN978-1-76046-530-8.
  13. ^Opper, Marc H.; Galway, Matthew.Experiments with Marxism-Leninism in Cold War Southeast Asia.ANU Press. pp. 205, 206.ISBN978-1-76046-530-8.
  14. ^abcChin Peng,My Side of History,pp 189-190.
  15. ^Peng, Chin (2004).Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party.Singapore: NUS Press. p. 131.ISBN9971692872.

Further reading[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lai_Teck&oldid=1220554375"