From Insurgent to Citizen - Hardcover

by Chow Thomas Swee Leong (Author)

This is a first-person account of an overseas Chinese who was involved in the armed struggle for the independence of Malaya and Singapore and who evolved through several roles during those tumultuous times - from an anti-Japanese agent in World War II, to a communist guerrilla leader during the Emergency and subsequently to a citizen who worked for the Special Branch to defend the nation during Confrontation.

The book also offers an in-depth first-person account of the history, operational methodology, struggles and ultimate failure of the Malayan Communist Party in the armed struggle and provides an in-depth analysis from a direct participant of those events. It describes the zeitgeist of the time amongst overseas Chinese in Malaya and Singapore - in the prelude to and the aftermath of World War II and the subsequent struggle of independence in a world where they had hitherto been second-class residents. Due to the inherent secrecy of the clandestine Malayan Communist Party, many of the events described in the book were not previously known; events that the protagonist in his old age now wishes to record for posterity.