Lee Meng was a notorious female Chinese guerrilla member and leader of the Communist Party of Malaya in Ipoh, Perak throughout the post-World War II in British Malaya. She was described as one of the ruthless woman and the most capable members of the local communist movement, where she was also identified as the main 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 in Perak during the British Military Administration shortly after the Japanese surrender on 12 September 1945. Lee had joined the Communist Party of Malaya 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 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 the reputation as a cunning fighter and plot organiser and known as one of the most ruthless members of the CPM in Ipoh. She also operating a Central Committee communication posts which co-ordinated a 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 are female, both young and old with legal cover occupations and throughout the activities, she helped any pregnant wives of high rankings communists in Perak for their confinement 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 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 unable to prove Lee's involvement in any of the attacks, she held the utmost responsible as most of the units are under her control. Many of the captured as well surrendered communist guerrillas members also described her as the one who ordered a number of cold-blooded executions which were carried out by Communist Special Service squads while the communist party's leader Chin Peng described her as a dedicated, active and brave woman where she was also reckless in her operational style.
Events leading to her arrestment
One of the victims of the communist spate of murders, Irene Lee whose husband Detective-Corporal Jimmy Loke was killed by a communist gunmen in Penang in April 1951 decided to joined the Malayan police force where she was promoted as Detective-Inspector and was subsequently posted to Special Branch headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Irene was highly regarded by Singapore Special Branch as among the highly competent and experienced officer which were also supported by the view of British journalist and author Noel Barber.
Manhunt and subsequent arrestment
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, the leader of the Communist-controlled Workers Protection Corps in Singapore. The woman husband is responsible in the killings of pineapple and rubber merchant Lim Teck Kin and several others victims 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 forces in Ipoh in July 1952, tried for having a hand grenade in her possession and sentenced to death for her responsibility in issuing order on 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 caught in Budapest for suspected espionage to the British authorities 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.
Following her banishment to China, Lee was reunited with her mother, whom she cared for till the latter passed away. She married with Peng's trusted aide and comrade named Chen Tien in 1965. Both intended to moved to southern Thailand and despite their fellow comrade there had built them a house, her husband died on 3 September 1990 due to 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.
