Wanted- alive but not dead
It saddens me not because the man is dead but because of the unforgiving nature of my fellow Malaysians even when a person is dead. For whatever he was worth, there is no denying that Chin Peng fought for Malayan nationalism against first the Japanese and then the British. This chapter of our nation’s history cannot be erased.
Major (retired) SM aka Malayan
Chin Peng aka Ong Boon Hua died on 16 Sep 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand. PM Najib announced that the remains of the former CPM secretary general, the late Chin Peng aka Ong Boon Hua would not be permitted to be buried in Malaysia. This was echoed by Tun Haniff Omar, Datuk Zahid Hamidi and others.
It saddens me not because the man is dead but because of the unforgiving nature of my fellow Malaysians even when a person is dead. For whatever he was worth, there is no denying that Chin Peng fought for Malayan nationalism against first the Japanese and then the British. This chapter of our nation’s history cannot be erased.
History has proven that the West will work with anyone, Commies included, if it serves their purpose! The Brits and Yanks were working hand in glove with Russia and likewise with the MPAJA/CPM during WW2. To the West, Commies can be allies at one point of time and enemies on another day. So after WW2 the MPAJA/CPM was deemed a threat by the Brits because it was getting in their way and Chin Peng was branded a traitor.
Though it had Maoist leanings and appealed mainly to the Chinese, the CPM was not short of Malay cadres. In fact, it had a large number of Malays in its hierarchy in its heydays. The 10th regiment consisted mainly of Malays particularly from Kelantan. So in actual fact the CPM represented various races.
So what picture does Chin Peng paint to you and me? Is he a patriot, nationalist, or a traitor and murderer? There are characters in our nation’s history who fit into Chin Peng’s dilemma like Hang Jebat, Mat Indera, Ibrahim Libya and to a lesser extent Raja Petra Kamaruddin, to name a few. Are all these people deemed traitors? I don’t think so! It seems ironic that a man who was once wanted physically dead or alive at a point in history is not wanted anymore even in ashes!
To me the only decent thing to do and to put the matter of Chin Peng to rest would be to rest him in peace in his birthplace. Not forgetting that the remains of two of Asia’s most wanted terrorists, Dr Azhari Husin and Nordin Mat Top who murdered innocent people were brought back from Indonesia and buried here in Malaysia. When incidents like this happen, a question all too often always pops up in my mind. Is the government now behaving like the West that I mentioned earlier?
