Ipoh World

"I was the District Special Branch Officer in Tanjung Malim in 1953-1958. Sometime in 1957 I together with 10 men went into jungle (Behrang Forest) to locate the hideout of Chee Loy. He was the most feared terrorist in the Tanjung Malim District. After several attempts my letter finally reached him. A rendezvous was arranged and we finally met. After a lot of talking he was finally convinced and agreed to surrender with his whole gang of 22 terrorists. They were all armed.

So, we walked out of the jungle and emerged in Trolak where we were met by Mr George Deck, the Head of Special Branch, Perak and Mr Joe Rothwell the Circle Special Branch Officer, Tapah. All of us then proceeded to Tapah. There was a very grand reception. It was the first group to surrender enbloc in 1957. They were really very hungry and their weapons were in bad shape and, above all, with a few rounds of ammunition each.

Chee Loy was the Deputy Commander of the 5th Regiment. He together with Choy Foong and Lee Teck (the latter two planned the pipe-line ambush in Tanjung Malim). These 3 were top on the wanted list for killing a few Europeans and several civilians.

I was one those in the ambush party, in the operation which resulted in the killing of Lee Teck in Pahang and Choy Foong in Langkap - Teluk Intan. In the case of Choy Foong, he fought very fiercely like a tiger , lost his rifle but fought back with his Luger pistol. He was finally shot in the chest by the ambush party and killed.

Yet another terrorist Kong Zu, State Committee Member of South Perak was also killed by me and my team. Not long after Chee Loy came in contact with the Special Branch and the latter realised that Khong Zu was with another group of terrorists. Several operations were mounted and fire-fights occurred but the terrorists were elusive. Their fire was intense and they fought very strongly. However, we picked-up 7 or 8 packs. From documents recovered it was further confirmed that Kong Zu was there. At that time one junior terrorist surrendered and he said that Kong Zu was wounded in the earlier fight.

Mr Deck urged us to work harder and we followed-up. This CT group was in the Trolak forest reserve. We finally found his camp at small stream. Further study revealed that it was Kong Zu’s camp. In fact, I saw him bathe naked with the wound on his shoulder bandaged. I could have easily killed him but Mr Deck wanted him alive to get vital intelligence from him.

Then in 1957 I received orders from Headquarters Special Branch, Perak, to assault this camp and kill him. With 37 men I finally assaulted this camp. There was a fierce fight and we had to fight much harder than ever before. The terrorists broke up and disappeared. Kong Zu and his wife could not be traced but several other terrorists were killed. A short while later we heard the sound of gun shot in the bush. On searching the area further we came across the body of Kong Zu who apparently shot himself. His wife Sue Chin surrendered later.

From Kong Zu’s documents we discovered that Choy Foong had escaped. So, we knew he was still alive and mounted several operations until he too was finally killed.

This was a purely Special Branch operation and being the only Special Branch Officer in Tanjung Malim I was automatically in the various operations carried out. Besides, I could speak Mandarin which was important to communicate with the terrorist leaders.
Very special skills had to be adopted like we had to look and behave like a terrorist ourself in every detail from attire to firearm (the exact lookalike carbines carried by terrorists), walk with bare feet, eat off the jungle, communicate with them with messages in rolled papers hidden in ant hills or hollows in tree trunks. The slightest doubt when communicating in Mandarin with the terrorists would have been fatal. So, lots of patience, guts and confidence were needed to tackle the terrorists using Special Branch techniques which broke the terrorists backbone finally.

Luckily we did not incur any casualties except for minor gun shot wounds. However, I still keep as a souvenir, a terrorist cap and a scroll found in a dead terrorist’s shirt pocket, for bravery shown by him.

There were many more operations of this nature until the end of 1958, where several armed CTs were killed or captured including a high ranking CT which broke the back bone of the CT organisation in Perak.

I left the Police Force in 1964 and joined as a Game Warden and finally ended to the top post as Chief of Perak State Game Department.

For bravery shown I had the rare distinction of being awarded Jaksa Perkasa, the JPP (Bravery Award) on two occasions."