Quek Peng Chin aka Quok Peng Chiang aka Ping Chen aka Willy Kok aka William Kuok Hock Ling was a close friend of James. He was a a leader of the Malayan Democratic Union (“MDU”). James spent a great deal of his childhood with William and the other Kuok brothers, Philip and Robert and was frequent visitor to their home in Jalan Wong Ah Fook in Johor Bahru.
“Before I went to university, I had a very, very close friend. The first man I went to see on landing in Singapore [from Calcutta] when I went home, and that was Quek Peng Chin (a.k.a William Kuok) at the [Malayan Democratic Union] MDU Headquarters. He was a classmate of mine. He’s a friend of mine. He used to live in and out of my house. I used to live in his house.”
James and William left the English College at the same time at the end of 1939.
James memorialised his dear friend and comrade, William Kuok, who gave his life to the anti-colonial struggle and lies buried in an unknown grave in the jungles of Pahang with these words:
“We will not weep, not even a drop
Or hang our heads down or beat our breasts
For you have lived your life in full, not
Seared by the shame of a cowardly past.“
“An Epitaph” Dedicated To William Kuok
In his interview with Yeo Kim Wah, James said that before World War 2, he and his friends were not politically conscious. But when Churchill in his Atlantic Charter hinted that Independence would be given only to the “white” colonies (presumably Canada, Australia and NZ), William wrote a letter to the Straits Times criticising Churchill’s position and advocating that the charter should be implemented in all colonies.
While James was in India, William wrote to him occasionally about his involvement in the MDU and the political happenings in Malaya and Singapore. To James, William was a brilliant intellectual. He felt that William and Jacko Thamboo went into the jungle out of fear. They believed that because of their involvement in leftist politics, they would be detained by the British and William would be sent to China where he would be shot by the Kuomintang soldiers – a common occurrence.
“William was a great influence in my life. When I came back I had a long chat with Quek Peng Chin. And soon after that, the emergency began. Once the emergency began, it seemed to me it was pointless to talk about democratic politics, which was probably a mistake.”
“The first person that James called on after he returned from India was William at the MDU Headquarters in North Bridge Road.” William tried to persuade James to go into the jungle with him but James did not join the MDU because by this time the MDU had been banned (MDU was dissolved in June 1948)”. William disappeared into the jungles of Malaya two days before The Emergency was declared on 24 June 1948 to avoid being arrested.
Philip Kuok’s book states his brother [William] worked on the Malaya Tribune prior to Occupation, and on the Democrat after the end of the war.
“Quek was with the MDU. I was very sympathetic to what he was doing. But I never got involved. I was away in Muar. I used to come down and see him, talk to him.”
“Quok Peng Chiang, a Johore-born journalist, was a communist and seemed to have been the owner of the communist-controlled newspaper, Democrat. He initiated a number of persons into politics who later figured prominently in leftwing movement in Singapore. He was killed during the Emergency.” ~ Yeo Kim Wah, The Anti-Federation Movement in Malaya, 1946–48
The British ambushed William and his two bodyguards in the jungle along the border of Negeri Sembilan and Pahang in August 1953, killing them. William was 30 years old. ~ Philip Kuok: A Memoir
It was James who was given the responsibility of breaking the news of William’s death to the family.
Quok Peng Chiang’s article, ‘Anti-British Politicians: An Interpretation’ Straits Times, 17.3.48