Lee Meng

Lee Meng ( – 2012) was a Chinese communist guerrilla and a leading member of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). She took part in guerrilla resistance alongside the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) against the Japanese occupation of Malaya, 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.

Background and early life

Born as Lee Ten Tai in Canton of the Republic of China in 1926, Lee moved to Ipoh together with her family at the age of five. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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 rankings communists in Perak by sheltering them in the houses of selected relatives.

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. 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. Many captured/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.

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. 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. The woman's husband was responsible for the killings of pineapple and rubber merchant Lim Teck Kin and several other collaborators 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.

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. 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. 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. 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, along with the efforts of Lim Phaik Gan, a British-born Malayan woman lawyer and diplomat, 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.

Later life and death

Following her banishment to China, Lee was reunited with her mother, whom she cared for until her mother's death. She married Peng's trusted aide and comrade, named Chen Tien in 1965. Both intended to move to southern Thailand, but on 3 September 1990 her husband died of lung cancer. In August 2007, Lee visited Malaysia to meet one of her trial lawyers, Lim, to thank her for securing her safe release. Lee died in Guangzhou, China, on 2 June 2012 at the age of 86.

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Meng
1920s births
2012 deaths
Malaysian exiles
Malaysian communists
Malaysian people of Chinese descent
History of Malaysia (1945–1963)
Malaysian women in warfare
Malaysian prisoners sentenced to death
Prisoners sentenced to death by the United Kingdom