Gerakan wants Chin Peng home

(The Malaysian Insider) – Penang Gerakan wants Chin Peng to be allowed to return to Malaysia as the communists are no longer a security threat.

Chairman Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan said that “even communist giants China and Russia have transformed towards economy-based struggles and the extreme communist terrorism practised in the 50s is non-existent now."

As such, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should review former communist leader Chin Peng's plea to be allowed home on humanitarian grounds, said Teng.

He said this in a statement following a call by Penang-based NGO Citizens International to end the Sitiawan native's exile.

“He is now 85 years old and wishes to return to Malaysia, his birthplace. He has even appealed to the High Court to allow him to return but the appeal was rejected," Teng said of Chin Peng, whose close relatives live in Butterworth, Penang.

Chin Peng is currently living in exile in Bangkok. He failed in his last bid to live in Malaysia after the Federal Court on April 30 upheld two lower courts’ decisions compelling him to produce his identification documents before he could enter the country.

According to the former Penang state executive councillor, Citizens International chairman S.M. Mohamed had said that the liberation movement led by individuals such as Chin Peng had contributed to the independence of Malaya.

Mohamed described Chin Peng as a Malaysian patriot who fought the British colonialists from the age of 15 and “sacrificed everything he had to free this country from British control, domination and exploitation.”