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Bong’s funeral wake.
KUCHING (Feb 7): Bong Kee Chok, the communist leader who signed the Sri Aman peace accord in 1973 that led to the laying down of arms during the insurgency in Sarawak, passed away yesterday at the age of 91.
He died in his sleep at about 6am, a family member told reporters at his residence here, adding that Bong had not been in the best of health after he suffered a stroke in late April last year.
He is survived by four children. His wife had passed away in 2019.
Bong was the former director and political commissar of the defunct North Kalimantan People’s Army (Paraku) and Sarawak Communist Organisation.
He had joined the communist movement since his secondary schooling days in the 1950s and their activities continued for about two decades until the party’s decline in the 1970s.
Bong and the late Tun Datuk Patinggi Abdul Rahman Ya’kub, who was then Sarawak’s chief minister, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding or the peace accord in Sri Aman on October 20, 1973.
Photo shows Abdul Rahman (seated, left) and Bong signing a peace treaty in Sri Aman in 1973 for the North Kalimantan Communist Party members to lay down their arms.
This document resulted in the laying down of arms of communist members and the return of Bong and his fellow guerrillas to society.
A peace agreement formally ending the communist insurgency was signed on Oct 17, 1990, at Wisma Bapa Malaysia here.
After he laid down his arms, Bong worked as a rubber tapper, a hawker, sold insurance and ventured into the pig rearing business.
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