attended his funeral. The school flag was placed on his coffin by Ong Keng Seng, executive director of the school. A charcoal sketch of David Chen's upper torso, drawn by K.Sia, a notable Malayan artist, and art teacher of the school, was displayed at the hall. The funeral procession, over long, stretched along a route from Kampung Bharu, where thousands of students and teachers of both Chung Ling High School and Fukien Girls' School marched under the escort of motorcycles. Tens of thousands of residents of Georgetown were said to have witnessed the procession, one of the largest in the city's history. The convoy stopped briefly at the junction of Macalister Road and Lorong Selamat, where David Chen was killed. It ended at the Western Road Cemetery, where he was laid to rest under a Christian burial ceremony conducted by Reverend T.H.Huang. Accusations of the main culprit for the assassination landed on the CPM, whom previously were displeased with his anti-communist stance in education. There were rumours, circulated around the time of his death, that Communist-sympathetic students, working for the CPM, submitted intelligence reports that characterised David Chen as an anti-Communist hardliner, which provoked the upper echelons of the CPM to eliminate his presence. Another theory forwarded regards the possible involvement by the British colonial government, for Chen's supposed extremist views on Chinese education. Two Chinese youths, Lee Khuan Koa and Chan Kwong Siew, were charged for his murder. The trials began on 24 March 1953. Both youths pleaded guilty. While awaiting trial, both suspects escaped from prison. Chan was shot and killed by the police on 27 March 1953 while evading capture. A third suspect, Lam Yew Cheong, was later known to have involved in the assassination, but he shot himself during a police standoff in a Chinese school near Seh Tan Court (at the Eng Chuan Tong Tan Kongsi) after a failed heist on 7 April 1952. Investigations confirmed that all three members involved in the shooting were part of a branch of the CPM, known as the Lau Tong Hui. The branch was involved in ten murder cases (six murders, four attempted murders) and three firearms heists. The branch was internally dissolved in an unknown time after April 1952 when branch members were either executed by the CPM, fled to China, or were captured by authorities. On 25 June 1953, Lee, the last surviving member of the