Out of the blue, Dr Too Chee Cheong has become a media 'star' and household name in Malaysia. His statement condemning Dong Jiao Zong and supporting the language switch as proposed and decided by the Umno-dominated Barisan Nasional has evoked mixed feelings and sentiments in the Chinese Malaysian community whose collective memory is rather long.

Malaysian media of all languages, including electronic media such as TV3, has introduced the man as a 78-year-old medical doctor and a former chairperson of Dong Zong (the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia) who operates a private clinic near Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur. These are indisputable facts, although his public attack on Dong Jiao Zong is subject to dispute and debate.

Before exploring his substantive arguments against Dong Jiao Zong and those of his nemeses, it is worth knowing more fully the personal background of the politically controversial man, infamous to the older generation of Chinese Malaysians. There is a dossier in Chinese on the ex-MCA man who later defected to the Singapore-based People's Action Party (PAP).

Education background

According to the dossier, parts of which were published by Sin Chew Daily (formerly Sin Chew Jit Poh ) on Nov 20.

Before the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941, Too graduated from lower secondary of the Chinese-based Confucian High School in Kuala Lumpur. Confucian High School had been alleged to be a 'hotbed' of 'communists' and 'Bolsheviks' during colonial times.

However, a source knowledgeable in pre-war Chinese politics in Kuala Lumpur revealed to malaysiakini that Too's father was a staunch supporter of the anti-communist Nationalist Party of China or Kuomintang who operated a pro-Kuomintang small-scale private school in Kuala Lumpur.

After completing his lower secondary, Too then enrolled in an English-based Christian missionary school in Kuala Lumpur for his upper secondary education in which he performed well enough to be admitted to the medical faculty of the British-run Hong Kong University. He returned to Malaya "in the late 1950s" with a medical degree.

It is not clear what Too did and how he survived in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation, or whether he was in Hong Kong at all during that period (1942-1945) where many Chinese in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya and mainland China, especially the educated ones who refused to become quislings, suffered brutal treatments and victimisation meted out indiscriminately by the Japanese occupiers who organised public sook ching (purges and executions).

Chinese education

In any case, according to the dossier, after returning to Malaya in the late 1950s, Too "attempted very hard" to "insert himself into the circle of Chinese educationists" and finally succeeded by becoming a committee member of a Chinese secondary school in Kuala Lumpur.

In 1965, Too became the second chairperson of Dong Zong on the basis of his position as the chair of the school's committee.

During his very short (only one year or less) tenure as the head of Dong Zong, Too reportedly attempted to influence Chinese schools to change their medium of instruction from Chinese to English, but failed. At that time, China was popularly perceived, rightly or wrongly, by many English-educated Chinese, especially those in the upper classes, in Malaya and Singapore as poor, backward, chaotic and weak.

About a year later, after losing his top post in the school's committee, Too quit chairing Dong Zong and, according to the dossier, "since then, he has disappeared from the circle of Chinese educationists for 30 years without making any public remarks on educational issues".

So what made him speak up now after 30 years of silence? The answer could be either political or psychological, or both.

A Chinese-language newspaper yesterday reported Too as recalling that he was verbally "abused" as "a running dog of British imperialism" for attempting to change the medium of instruction of Chinese schools.

Lost on PAP ticket

Too's involvement in politics was a little longer. According to the dossier, Too first joined the Malayan (later Malaysian) Chinese Association (MCA) which was formed as a British-sponsored anti-communist political party catered exclusively for Chinese Malayans/Malaysians who were collectively perceived as communists or potential communists. However, he later deserted MCA and crossed over to the Singapore-based Chinese-predominated People's Action Party (PAP).

PAP was formed on Nov 21, 1954 at an inaugural meeting held at the Victoria Memorial Hall in Singapore by English-educated intellectuals and professionals who admired British Fabianism such as Lee Kuan Yew, and other Malay, Chinese and Tamil-educated leaders of mass organisations such as trade unionists Fong Sween Suan and AK Kuruppiah, journalist A Samad Ismail (popularly called Pak Samad) and Chinese school teachers like Chan Chiaw Thor. (see Fong Sip Chee, The PAP Story the Pioneering Years , Singapore, Times, 1979)

However, in 1961, PAP split into two factions, one led by the so-called or self-styled 'moderates' like Lee Kuan Yew, and another by the alleged 'communists' or 'communist sympathisers' like Samad and the late James J Puthucheary. After an intense power and ideological struggle, Lee's faction gained control of PAP's leadership, while Samad and Puthucheary broke away and formed the Socialist Front.

In 1963, Singapore under the rule of PAP joined peninsula Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia. The Singapore-based PAP thus entered into politics in the peninsula, arousing fears on the part of Umno, MCA as well as leftist opposition parties such as the defunct Labour Party of Malaya and People's Party (PRM). The Labour Party of Malaya and PRM formed the Socialist Front in peninsular Malaysia.

In 1964, PAP participated in the general election, attacking Umno's ideology of "Malay dominance", Socialist Front's "leftism" and MCA's "feudal-comprador'ism". Despite the apparent charisma of Lee, PAP lost rather badly. One of the PAP losers was none other than Too who contested in the famous Batu constituency against the late Dr Tan Chee Khoon of the Socialist Front.

Brief, unsuccessful public life

It was after Too's defeat in the 1964 general election on the PAP ticket that he became the second chairperson of Dong Zong. It is unclear if he held any party membership between 1965 and 1966.

He does not seem to have impacted memorably on either the PAP or Dong Jiao Zong. His public life also seemed brief and unsuccessful, taking into account his academic achievements and his 30-year 'silence' on the Chinese education front.

Too's involvement in MCA is not well documented. However, it is said that he was active in MCA Youth where he met and worked with Sim Mow Yu, then the Youth vice chief. Sim was later sacked by the party in 1967 when MCA was headed by Tan Siew Sin.

Tan, an acknowledged Anglophile and a law graduate from London, once worked for the British 'Information' Service's Far East Affairs Bureau based in Delhi, India during World War II.

Like Sim, Tan was born and based in Malacca, but unlike Sim, Tan did not understand the Chinese language even though he led the MCA for some 13 years.

Incidentally, Sim, 90, now Jiao Zong's honourary advisor after heading it between 1966 and 1994, was attacked by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad as an "extremist" earlier this year.

Brother a psy-war expert

It is highly interesting to note that Too's elder brother, the late Chee Chiew, popularly known as CC Too, was the ' legendary' anti-communist and counter-insurgency psychological warfare expert of the British (and later Malayan) police Special Branch during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960). Family connections, of course, do not necessarily suggest political or organisational linkage between them.

Given his 'colourful' background, it is not clear if the press conference held two days ago by Too is a solution to a problem, or the problem itself. Some of his nemeses may say: "Doctor, heal thyself first."

For historians, especially of the Pacific War, Dr Too Chee Cheong's story is certainly a goldmine of primary sources for a Master's or doctoral dissertation.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia . Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew , he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.