No way Chin Peng’s remains can return to Malaysia, says former police chief Hanif
Lee Shi-Ian, TMI
“We don’t owe Chin Peng anything. He caused Malaysia and its people a lot of harm which resulted in more than 10,000 deaths and untold misery for the families of those who died,” said former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar (pic) in dismissing calls for the remains of the former Communist Party of Malaya leader to be brought back to Malaysia.
According to Hanif, Chin Peng and his followers had refused an offer to return to the country within a year of signing the peace accord in 1989.
“When Chin Peng finally applied in 2005 to return to Malaysia, the boat had sailed and there was absolutely no reason to admit him back into the country unless he could prove that he had applied to return within that one-year window, which he couldn’t,” Hanif told The Malaysian Insider in a text message yesterday.
The former IGP who served from 1974 to 1994 instead called for more focus on those who had fought and defeated Chin Peng and his party, insisting that the families of security personnel who fought the communists should be looked after.
“Chin Peng and his followers refused the chance we gave them to return to Malaysia in 1989 and 1990, so they should be left outside our country. Under the terms of the Haadyai peace accord signed in 1989, we forgave them for their crimes,” Hanif said, adding that while he had no love for Chin Peng, he would would have fought for his return so as to honour the peace accord terms.
Hanif claimed that one of the former CPM members who refused to return includes the man who assassinated his predecessor, Malaysia’s third IGP Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Hashim.
He said the country did not want the assassin to return without facing murder charges.
Hanif rejected any debate on whether Chin Peng’s remains or ashes should be allowed to return to Malaysia. He accused Chin Peng’s sympathisers of supporting the CPM’s armed insurrection to seize power in Malaysia, adding that they have misplaced loyalties.
Following the Japanese invasion of China in the late 1930s, Chin Peng dedicated himself to the Communist Internationale, an organisation created by communist icon Vladimir Lenin to bring together communists worldwide.
Chin Peng and CPM then joined hands with the British Force 136 to fight the Japanese in Malaya.
Hanif accused Chin Peng of plunging Malaya “into a cruel insurrection” lasting four decades at the behest of the USSR.
