Lee Meng
Lee in 1951
Born
Lee Ten Tai

1926 (1926)
Canton, Republic of China
Died2 June 2012(2012-06-02) (aged 85–86)
Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
Political partyCommunist Party of Malaya
MovementMalayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (1942–1945)
Malayan National Liberation Army (1948–1952)
Criminal chargeIllegal possession of a weapon
Criminal penaltyDeath, later reduced to imprisonment
Criminal statusCommuted, released to China in 1964
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1965; died 1990)​
Chinese name
Chinese李明
Birth name
Chinese李天泰

Lee Meng (Chinese: 李明; 1926–2012), also romanised as Lee Min, was a Malaysian Chinese communist guerrilla and a leading member of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).[1] She took part in guerrilla resistance against the Japanese occupation of Malaya as a member of the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) and later joined the Malayan National Liberation Army during the Malayan Emergency to fight against British rule in Malaya. She was described as one of the most capable members of the local communist movement, and was also the leader of the "Kepayang Gang" in Perak.[2][3]

Background and early life

Born Lee Ten Tai (李天泰) in Canton, China, in 1926, Lee moved to Ipoh together with her family at the age of five.[4] She firstly worked as a school teacher in a Chinese school located in Anson Bay (present-day Teluk Intan) in Perak during the British Military Administration shortly after the Japanese surrender on 12 September 1945.[4] Lee had joined the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) at the age of 16 when she was recruited by the school teacher in 1942. Her father was unemployed and lived with her uncle and aunt while her mother was later banished back to Mainland China by the British colonial authorities in 1950 after being arrested for involvement in communist activities.[2][4]

Underground activities

Prior to her recruitment, she led the party's underground area committee of Ipoh during the Japanese occupation of British Malaya where she had a reputation as a cunning fighter and plot organiser and was known as one of the most ruthless members of the CPM in Ipoh.[4] She also operated Central Committee communication posts which co-ordinated top secret communist communication networks with links to other states such as Pahang, Selangor, Penang and as far to Singapore.[2] A majority of her followers were female, both young and old with legal cover occupations and throughout these activities, she helped any pregnant wives of high ranking communists in Perak by sheltering them in the houses of selected relatives.[2]

Throughout the Malayan Emergency, she controlled many of the major armed units in the town area, including the notorious Kepayang Gang along with Special Mobile Squad (SMS) that were reported as being responsible for many of the assassinations and grenade attacks that were carried out between 1948 until 1951.[2][3] Although the Special Branch was unable to prove Lee's involvement in any of the attacks, she held the utmost responsibility as most of the units were under her control.[3] Many captured or surrendered communist guerrillas named her as the one who ordered a number of executions against collaborators, which were carried out by Communist Special Service squads. She was described by the communist party's leader Chin Peng as a dedicated, active and brave woman, though reckless in her operational style.[4]

Events leading to her capture

Irene Lee, whose husband, Detective Corporal Jimmy Loke, was assassinated by communist guerrillas in Penang in April 1951, decided to join the Malayan police force where she was promoted to Detective-Inspector, and was subsequently posted to Special Branch headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.[4] Irene Lee's work as a detective led to the British colonial government acquiring information concerning the working of the Chinese communist party, which led eventually to Lee Meng's capture by the colonial forces.

Manhunt and subsequent arrest

Following a raid on a communist guerrilla camp in Selangor in early February 1952, documents from the abandoned camp revealed the identity of a Chinese woman serving as a courier member from Singapore into Johor which identified as Ah Shu or Ah Soo, a Chinese school teacher and the wife of Wong Fook Kwang (Tit Fung), the leader of the Communist-controlled Workers Protection Corps in Singapore.[4] The woman's husband was responsible for the killings of pineapple and rubber merchant Lim Teck Kin and several others including a policeman, a factory supervisor and a manager at Hock Lee Bus Company in Singapore. Once the identity of Ah Shu was identified, Irene was sent by her department into Singapore in February 1952 to track the woman and follow a trail that would ultimately lead to Lee's arrest and her eventual banishment to Mainland China.[4]

Lee was captured by the British Malayan police force in Ipoh in July 1952, tried for having a hand grenade in her possession and sentenced to death for her responsibility in issuing orders for several murders.[5][6][7] In February 1953, a petition was signed by 60 members of the Malayan Parliament to the Sultan of Perak to grant a pardon to Lee since her early petition to appeal the Privy Council had been dismissed by the Judicial Committee.[8] Within the same year, the Hungarian People's Republic government offered to swap British national Edgar Sanders, who had been charged in Budapest for suspected espionage, for her.[3][1][7][9] The British Prime Minister at the time, Winston Churchill initially refused but following the order by the Sultan of Perak who agreed to pardon and persuaded the British authorities,[7] along with the efforts of Lim Phaik Gan, a British-born Malayan woman lawyer and diplomat,[10] her sentence was commuted and she was released to the People's Republic of China in 1964, after serving her term for 11 years in Taiping prison.[11][12]

Later life and death

Following her banishment to China, Lee was reunited with her mother, whom she cared for until her mother's death.[13] In 1965, she married Chen Tien, one of Peng's most trusted aides and comrades.[4] Both had intended to move to southern Thailand, but on 3 September 1990, her husband died because of lung cancer, which induced indecisiveness whether she should move or stay.[13] In August 2007, Lee visited Malaysia to meet one of her trial lawyers, Lim, to thank her for securing her safe release.[4] Lee died in Guangzhou, China, on 2 June 2012 at the age of 86.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b "COMMUNISTS: Cold War Barter". Time. 9 March 1953. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e Khoo Salma Nasution; Abdur-Razzaq Lubis (2005). Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysia's Modern Development. Areca Books. pp. 313–. ISBN 978-983-42113-0-1.
  3. ^ a b c d Leon Comber (2008). Malaya's Secret Police 1945-60: The Role of the Special Branch in the Malayan Emergency. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 226–234. ISBN 978-981-230-829-0.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ronnie Tan (9 April 2018). "Hunting Down the Malayan Mata Hari". National Library Board, Singapore. Archived from the original on 4 May 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  5. ^ "Pretty Girl Gave Murder Orders Court Told". The Straits Times. 28 August 1952. p. 1. Retrieved 3 October 2019 – via National Library Board, Singapore.
  6. ^ "Representations about the sentence of death passed on Lee Ten Tai, or Lee Meng, by a Malayan court for unlawful possession of arms: report of commuting of death sentence (CO 1022/6)". The National Archives (United Kingdom). 1953. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  7. ^ a b c Michael Burleigh (11 April 2013). Small Wars, Far Away Places: The Genesis of the Modern World 1945–65. Pan Macmillan. pp. 193–. ISBN 978-0-230-77150-5.
  8. ^ "COMET Will Bring Mercy Appeal". The Straits Times. 20 February 1953. p. 1. Retrieved 3 October 2019 – via National Library Board, Singapore.
  9. ^ Gábor Bátonyi (2015). "Diplomacy by Show Trial: The Espionage Case of Edgar Sanders and British-Hungarian Relations, 1949–53". The Slavonic and East European Review. 93 (4): 692–731. doi:10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.93.4.0692.
  10. ^ Mort Rosenblum (22 July 1971). "Malaysia names woman envoy to United Nations". Eugene Register-Guard. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  11. ^ "Lee Ten Tai (Trial)". Hansard. 19 November 1952. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  12. ^ Neal Ascherson (23 July 2009). "Wedgism". London Review of Books. 31 (14). Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  13. ^ a b Chin Peng (2003). My Side of History. Media Masters. pp. 502–. ISBN 978-981-04-8693-8.
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