Zahid insists on blocking return of Chin Peng’s ashes: KUALA - TopicsExpress

Zahid insists on blocking return of Chin Peng’s ashes: KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 — With Chin Peng due to be cremated today, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has maintained that Putrajaya will prevent the former communist leader’s remains from being brought back to Malaysia, despite pleas from MCA and Pakatan Rakyat (PR). In a report by Umno-aligned daily Utusan Malaysia today, the home minister repeated Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s remark that the former communist leader was not a citizen here, and added that his burial here would lead to his veneration. “The reason is because he was not a Malaysian citizen, based on information from the National Registration Department. Of course we also know that, if his remains or ashes are brought back, there will be people who will glorify him as an independence fighter or create a memorial,” Zahid was quoted as saying by the Malay-language newspaper. “We are firm in our stand. Like what the prime minister said, Chin Peng cannot enter Malaysia.” The home minister said that such actions would hurt the feelings of war veterans and family members who had suffered under “the cruelty of Chin Peng and the communists”. Najib said last Friday that the 1989 Hat Yai Peace Accord - which allowed Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) members to return to their homeland if they laid down their arms - required those who agreed to the terms to apply for citizenship within one year of signing the agreement. He claimed that Chin Peng, the former CPM secretary-general, had refused to do so and thus, had relinquished his rights. But MCA, PR and even former Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor have told the federal government to respect the three-way peace treaty signed between Malaysia, Thailand and the CPM. Abdul Rahim - who had led the peace negotiations between Malaysia and the CPM in the late 1980s as the Special Branch director then - said recently Malaysia would become the world’s laughing stock if Putrajaya insisted on prohibiting Chin Peng’s remains from being buried in his home country here. Lawyers have also said that there is no specific law that the federal government can use to bar Chin Peng’s ashes from being brought into Malaysia. Chin Peng, 88, died in a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand on September 16, where he had been living in exile before his death. dlvr.it/41GHVh