The Malayan Communist Party as Recorded in the Comintern Files

From all this, it might be suggested that (1) the MCP had applied for affiliation to the Comintern;
(2) the Comintern did not officially approve it; (3) the MCP considered their status as a preparatory
branch before the Pacific War; and, (4) after the end of the War, the MCP intended to present itself
as a member of the Comintern.
2. In the Russian-language brief history of the MCP, the MCP’s activities over several years
from 1935 on were reviewed by Comintern reviewers. One part of the review is
summarized below:
Until 1935, the MCP struggled to establish a Worker-Peasant Soviet Republic of Malaya.
Following the CCP, the MCP changed its policy in 1935 to establish an Anti-Imperialist National
United Front and other mass organizations. At that time, there emerged a dissident group who
opposed the new policy and tried to split the Party to form its own CC. The MCP experienced a
serious crisis. It was attacked by British Imperialists from outside and by the dissident group from
inside. The MCP crushed the dissidents and extricated itself from the crisis.
Between 1935 and 1937, the Party struggled for ending the civil war, for national solidarity to
oppose the Japanese Imperialists in China, for building up and strengthening patriotic movements
of overseas Chinese, and for improving the positions of the working masses in Malaya. In order to
support the Anti-Japanese movement of Chinese people, the Malayan Chinese Anti-Japanese
Backing-Up Society (MCAJBS) was set up . 8 The prestige of the Party was raised. 9
(The concluding part of the above document contained the reviewers’ general assessment of the
MCP from 1930 to 1940. The assessment will be quoted in the section on 1942.)
The dissident group of 1935 was led by Boo Chee-fu (Wu Zhi Hao). According to the above
document, the dissident group seemed to have insisted that the struggle should not be confined to
being Anti-Japan. C. F. Yong referred to two party instances of dissidence. First, in August 1932,
the moderate Hakka faction broke away and founded its own counter-organization, the Malayan
Communist League (MCL. 共 产 党 大 同 盟 ). Second, in 1935–1936, the power struggle between the
Hainanese and Hakka factions degenerated into bloodshed, which resulted in the arrest of some of
the CC members, the departure of Liu Teng-chan to China, and the murder of Boo Chee-fu. 10 Were
the Malayan AIL and the MCL in fact different organizations? Yong wrote that the Nanyang AIL
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