Dr Too Chee Cheong, the 78-year-old seemingly obscure medical doctor in downtown Kuala Lumpur who has become a media 'star' in the last few days for his public outburst against Dong Jiao Zong and his comrade-turn-nemesis, Sim Mou Yu, is now a subject of debate of many Chinese Malaysians in the streets .

Breaking himself out of a time capsule and 30-year political isolation, Too has certainly made himself an object of historical inquiry among young Malaysians, and subject of passionate and nostalgic speculations for the elderly. History, like news, has always had more than one side of the story.

A retired general clerk of a Chinese clan association in Kuala Lumpur who is now a taxi driver told this writer that Too belongs to the Cantonese clan, and that his grandfather was Too Nam who migrated to British Malaya in the early 19th century. It is also revealed that the bilingual (Chinese and English) mausoleum of Too Nam is still located at a cemetery in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.

Too Nam is well known among other older Chinese in Malaysia as a follower and supporter of Dr Sun Yat Sen, the Chinese revolutionary leader who overthrew the last dynasty in China and established a republic in 1911. These oral accounts have been verified by a written and open English-language source.

According to an English-language biography of Too's elder brother, Chee Chew, Too Nam (1854-1939) was a "Chinese tutor to Dr Sun Yat Sen in Hawaii" and also "a fellow revolutionary against the Manchu Ching dynasty". Too Nam is also said to have founded the Too Nam School in Kuala Lumpur. (see Lim Cheng Leng, "The Story of a Psy-Warrior - Tan Sri C.C. Too", Kuala Lumpur, 2000; pp. 21-22; Lim, the biographer, also worked as a police Special Branch officer in charge of psychological warfare and rose to the rank of Superintendent of Police before retiring in 1984.}

Printing business

According to the biographer, the Too brothers' father was Too Choo Sun who was born in China but brought to Malaya when he was still a little child. Later, Choo Sun became a businessman who ran a printing press in Kuala Lumpur. (ibid: pp. 21-24)

Although not mentioned in the biography, an oral source knowledgeable in the pre-war history of Kuala Lumpur recalled to malaysiakini that he continued to operate the Too Nam School founded by his father. The Too Nam School is said to be ideologically pro-Kuomintang (Nationalist Party of China)

According to biographer Lim, Too Choo Sun was a "very strict" father of six children, five male and one female who are all described as "brilliant" because two males are medical practitioners (one of which is Dr Too Chee Cheong), another three, "in the business circle" while the famous or infamous C.C. Too, the eldest, was the 'legendary' head of the British/Malaysian police Special Branch's anti-Communist and counter-insurgency psychological operations from 1956 to 1984. (ibid: p. 24)

At the time of the publication of the biography in 2000, Dr Too Chee Cheong's mother was still alive and living at 94 years. She is portrayed in the book by Lim to be a "conservative" mother. (ibid: p. 26)

It seems that the Too family was wealthy and well established in Kuala Lumpur in the pre-war years when British colonialism still reigned supreme. The father of Dr Too Chee Cheong is said to be "non-supportive of the Communists" and his elder brother, Chee Chew (C.C.Too), "had nothing against the colonial system and the British colonial masters". (ibid: 36)

Survive well

Despite the many atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese security apparatuses, especially the Kempeitei (Military Police) in Malaya and Singapore against the Chinese for their widespread support for the Allied cause and the anti-Japanese resistance in China, the Too family in Kuala Lumpur seemed to somehow survive well and still prosper.

For, according to Lim, " During the Japanese occupation and particularly in the priod 1942-1943, Too Chee Chew (C.C.Too, the elder brother of Dr Too Chee Cheong) had so much free and idle time that he was able to read all the books in the Kuala Lumpur book club."

" That public library in English was spared any interference by the Japanese occupation authorities". (ibid: p.35)

How could a well-known pro-Kuomintang family and their members stay in peace in Japanese-occupied territories such as Malaya when the majority faction of the Kuomintang government in China was fighting the invasion and occupation on the Allied side?

All established accounts of war history have by now confirmed that while hundred of Indians in Malaya were sent to the China-Burma border as slave-labourers to build the 'Death Railway' over River Kwai, thousands of Chinese were killed, buried alive, detained, tortured and raped in what has been known as sook ching or 'public purges and executions'.

Working hypothesis

The defeated armed forces of Britain (including a huge number of its Indian infantrymen) and Australia were incarcerated and tortured, and some were also sent to the China-Burma border as slave-labourers.

In short, the Japanese occupier were determined to root out and exterminate in Malaya and Singapore all anti-Japanese elements, real or merely suspect, such as members and sympathisers of the Communist Party of Malaya and MPAJA (Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army), anti-Japanese faction of Kuomintang, and the pro-Allied Force 136?

A working hypothesis can be found in a recently published research monograph of the origin and growth of the pre-war British Police Special Branch, which also gives a comprehensive account of the then prevailing political situations in British Malaya (including Singapore) and China. The book is titled "Absent History - The Untold Story of Special Branch Operations in Singapore, 1915-1942" (Singapore, Horizon Book, 2002)

According to Ban Kah Choon, the author of the book, in the 1930s, Kuomintang in China was split into two factions, one led by the anti-Japanese Chiang Kai Shek and another by the pro-Japanese Wang Ching-wei.

Wang, according to historian Ban, "was one of Sun Yat Sen's trusted lieutenants" and after Sun's death in March 1925, "Wang for a while had an opportunity to take over the leadership of the KMT (Kuomintang)", however, "Wang mouthed but never subscribed to Sun Yat Sen's principles of national unity and his lack of sincerity soon became obvious" (ibid: p.221)

Japanese support

In a protracted intra-party power struggle with other factions of the Kuomintang, Wang finally sought Japanese support, and in 1940 he agreed to head a pro-Japanese quisling government based in Nanjing. Historian Ban records that Wang's quisling government send their men to British Malaya and other parts to influence Chinese opinions and induce them to support the Japanese "Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", and that Wang succeeded to a certain extend.

Using military and security intelligence now declassified in Singapore and Britain, Ban records with details how the British Police Special Branch based in Singapore also reportedly monitored the activities of Wang's networks and cells in Malaya and Hong Kong before the outbreak of the Pacific War on Dec 7-8, 1941.

Chinese political opinions and loyalty in British Malaya, especially those in the Kuomintang circle, were split. Some of them, especially the wealthier ones, actually supported the Japanese invasion and occupation of Malaya and Singapore (ibid: 221-233).

Could the Too family in Kuala Lumpur then be actually sympathetic to, or supportive of, the pro-Japanese cause of Wang? Even without a positive or negative answer to this question, it can at least be safely reasoned that the publicly known pro-Kuomintang family of Too in Kuala Lumpur was certainly not regarded by the Japanese invaders and occupiers as anti-Japanese, or sympathetic to, or supportive of, the cause of the Allied.

Disturbing question

A more disturbing question is how could a publicly well-known pro-Kuomintang family in Kuala Lumpur remain 'neutral' and acceptable to the Japanese occupiers who maintained an Orwellian system of surveillance, intelligence and security, and who conducted sook ching operations as matters of routine?

How could the political background of the Too family who was well known to so many people at that time, escape the preying ears and eyes of the Japanese intelligence agents who had already established wide and deep networks in British Malaya since early 1930s?

(For researches into the pre-war Japanese intelligence networks and activities in British Malaya, see Ban Kah Choon, ibid; Peter Elphick, "Singapore - The Pregnable Fortress", London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1995; Peter Elphick, "Far Eastern File - The Intelligence War in the Far East", 1930-1945, London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997)

Of course, the more interesting and 'colourful' story of the Too family comes from Chee Chew and the 'legendary' head of psychological warfare of the British/Malaysian Police Special Branch from 1956 to 1983. It will be discoursed in due time.

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.