The Malayan Communist Party as Recorded in the Comintern Files

CONCLUSION
The MCP history as recorded in the Comintern Files may roughly be outlined as follows:
1. Behaviour and correspondence of the suspected persons were closely watched not only in
Malaya but also in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Once a relevant person was arrested, all documents
kept in his office as well as residence were seized. Once a letter was intercepted, persons as well as
places addressed in a letter were kept watched. When the communists sensed the trap, they dared
not approach the addressed places. Therefore, even if re-posted after interception, these letters
seldom reached the recipients, that is, the Comintern or the MCP. Documents sent by the MCP and
fortunately kept in Moscow are the ones which survived these strict surveillance.
2. In 1927, the First Congress of the South Seas (Nanyang) Communist Party was convened
and the Provisional Committee was set up. Another contemporary document also said that it was
inaugurated in early 1928. It was called the Nanyang Provisional Committee (NPC), the (Chinese)
Communist Party of Malay Archipelago, or Malay Communist Party. On 2 May it convened a
large-scale Enlarged Plenum that lasted for two weeks; subsequently, on 2 July, it held a Plenum.
One of these two plena would be the Second Representatives’ Congress of the NPC. The core of
the PC’s leadership was called the Presidium (or General Committee in C. F. Yong’s account). In
early 1928, the NPC implemented so radical a strategy that it encountered serious repression. As a
consequence of this ‘mistake’, the NPC was reorganized at the Plenum of 2 July 1928. While some
members were expelled from the leadership, the others, though reprimanded and demoted,
remained in the PC. Table 5 shows the top leaders of the NPC who were mentioned in the
Comintern documents and in C. F. Yong’s book, the two sources being closely similar. From
Yong’s information, it is known that most of the top leaders were arrested and deported soon after.
Mainly due to the arrests of many NPC leaders, only a few of them were able to continue to lead
the MCP.
3. Most contemporary Comintern documents stated that the MCP was formed at the Third
Representatives’ Congress (Conference) of the NPC. As for the inauguration date of the MCP, the
Party officially claims it to be 30 April 1930. C. F. Yong argues either early-mid April or late April
1930 because most of the MCP leaders were arrested on 29 April after they had been appointed. On
the other hand, a Comintern document dated 1 May 1930 showed the Notice relating to the
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