Koon Yew Yin
25th Sept 2013

Almost two years after my meeting with Chin Peng in Bangkok on 2 October, I learnt – as did other Malaysians – of his death on 16th September 2013. His passing on is not unexpected as he had been ill for some years. What is unexpected is the Government’s refusal to allow his ashes to be returned to Malaysia, his home country for which he fought for liberty and freedom, initially against the Japanese and then against the British.

Chin Peng was a freedom fighter in every sense of the word. His record of defiance and opposition to Japanese and British colonial rule in Malaya is unprecedented. It is comparable or even exceeds that of anti-colonial leaders such as Ho Chi Minh, Mohammad Hatta, and Jawaharwal Nehru who were his contemporaries in Asia’s struggle to free itself from the yoke of western powers and Japan in the mid twentieth century. Other leaders that come to mind during that crucial period of nationalist ferment after the Second World War are Nkrumah, Nasser and Lumumba.

In all those countries whether in Asia, Africa or Latin America where the anti-colonial and nationalist freedom fighters fought, they have been accorded due recognition and honour.

But not in Malaysia where UMNO-putraism has sought to stamp its racial and religious politics on every aspect of life in the country –dead and living; past, present and the future. Read the rest of this entry »