When Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History was published in 2003, interested parties naturally began a frantic search through its pages for spicy details and poignant revelations. One of the issues that drew attention was the Baling Talks, and how Chin Peng the master strategist realised that he was but a pawn on a chessboard stretching far beyond Malaya’s boundaries.
WE TEND TO THINK OF the Baling Talks of 1955 as a serious attempt by the government to negotiate peace with the Communists.
But if we were to study the actual transcript of the talks, we might get a different impression. While Chin Peng appears earnest about the Communists’ willingness to lay down arms and rejoin society, Tunku Abdul Rahman and David Marshall, heads of the governments of the Federation of Malaya and Singapore respectively, appear to make it hard for them. While Chin Peng seems prepared to make concessions, the Tunku and Marshall seem uncompromising in their demands.
I have been involved in two public readings of the Baling Talks’ original transcript, organised by the Five Arts Centre. This transcript, edited down to two and a half hours from eight hours of recording done of the four sessions they engaged in over two days, contains the actual words used by the historic personages. The first time I did it was in 2008 in Kuala Lumpur when I read the Tunku’s part in one of the four sessions. More recently, in May 2011, I read Chin Peng’s words in the fourth session. This was as a presentation of the Singapore Arts Festival.
