Malaysia denies Chin Peng's last wish for home burial
Chin Peng's last wish - to be buried in his birthplace in Sitiawan, Perak - will go unfulfilled as the government will bar his remains from entering Malaysia.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said even the ashes of the former secretary-general of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) would not be allowed back.
“The Malaysian government will not be involved in the burial of this former CPM leader and we believe it will be done in Thailand,” he told the media.
Chin Peng, who reportedly died of cancer in Bamrungrad Hospital, at age 89, fought and lost a nine-year legal battle to be allowed back in Malaysia. The Federal Court, on April 30, 2009, ruled against his application to reside in Malaysia because he was unable to prove he was born in the country.
Despite the apex court’s ruling, Chin Peng (whose real name is Ong Boon Hua) kept insisting he was a Malaysian whose only wish was “to die in my birthplace and be buried among my ancestors”.
“This is my right and I hope nobody will deny me this,” he added.
He said this in an interview with The Star in November 2009 to mark the 20th anniversary of the Peace Accord between the Malaysian government and the CPM, which was signed on December 2, 1989, in Hat Yai, Thailand.
Chin Peng said even if he was banned from Malaysian soil, he would still find a way to be buried in Sitiawan.
One way or another, “I will find my way to return home”, Chin Peng said. He added that he had tasked four of his close former comrades-in-arms to quietly bury his ashes in the cemetery where his ancestors’ graves lie.
It remains unknown who these comrades are. According to Chin Peng’s lawyer Darshan Singh Khaira, family members were still discussing funeral arrangements and would reportedly perform religious rites for him on Friday.
Chin Peng fled to China in 1961 and later settled in Bangkok, where he was granted an alien passport. He reportedly moved to Hat Yai, Songkla, in recent years and shuttled between the city and Bangkok for his cancer treatment.
Chin Peng became CPM secretary-general at 23 and was Britain’s “enemy number one” in Southeast Asia.
Chin Peng masterminded the attacks during the Emergency from 1948 to 1960, which resulted in about 10,500 deaths. The CPM mounted another insurgency in 1968, that claimed more than 300 lives.
For years, Chin Peng maintained that he and the CPM were engaged in a war with the country’s oppressors and they had nothing to apologise for.
But during the interview with The Star, Chin Peng finally apologised to the victims and families for the CPM’s acts of violence: “I take full responsibility for my comrades’ actions. [But] in war, we cannot differentiate the innocent from the non-innocent.”
His apology drew mixed responses, with some refusing to accept it, but others saying he should be forgiven and allowed to return.
