MISTAKING SHORT MEMORY FOR CLEAR CONSCIENCE *

At the age of 23, Chin Peng (than the Comunist Party of Malaya secretary general) and the Communist Party of Malay initiated a 12 year guerrilla war based on his idealism some 57 years ago. As in any war there are two histories, that taken from the version of those who ultimately prevailed and that of the defeated. After having lost his chosen vocation as being a guerrilla, he than decided to become a writer relating his personal side of the story with his 2003 book "My Side of History". In it, he fought a 12 years insurgency for something he believed to be right when the Brtish began a new federalization program which included laws that stated that non-Malays could only qualify as citizens if they had lived in the country for 15 of the past 25 years and had to prove proficiency in either Malay or English. What is certain is that it caused untold misery to all and sundry and the civilian casulties totaled 2,478 with another 810 missing .
He has applied to the court that he and his followers be allowed back to Malaysia, and the KL High Court has fixed Sept 21st for the hearing. He has also filed an application to restrain the Goverment and it's agents from making statements.

OBH, Before 1948 you had justly earned your reputation as a freedom fighter against Japanese colonization but when you walked the way of violence, that was the day you lost all your right. You did not represent the common folks who were tired of the violence and the tragedy that they left barely 3 years earlier. You lured impressionable young men and women from their family and lead them into the path of slaughter and terror. Did you not feel the pain that they felt when bullets tore into their young bodies fighting for an idealogy born not for democracy but to ensure ascendency of your one party idealogy? Did you not stop to count the tears that flowed from each parents eyes when they learnt of a lost son or daughter ? You have demanded that the Malaysian goverment to stop making libelous statement about you. We demand responsibility and accountability from you. You have created your own reputation after 1948. There is absolutely no excuse for the terror, the sorrow, the pain and the crime that you and the CPM have perpetrated. None.

Goverment : Chin Peng has no right to sue
Link : The Sun

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) secretary-general Chin Peng and other members of the defunct organisation have no locus standi to sue the Malaysian government to stop it from making statements deemed malicious to them, the government contended.

According to a statement of defence filed by the Malaysian government at the Ipoh High Court on Aug 16, the government claimed that from the aspects of history and public knowledge, the reputations of Chin Peng and other members of his party had already been ruined in the eyes of the public all this while.

The government also claimed that Chin Peng could not bring about the action for other ex-members of the CPM because the relief he sought was for libel.
It claimed the suit violated the right of freedom of expression as enshrined under Article 10 of the Federal Constitution.
The affidavit-in-reply was filed following an order by the Ipoh High Court on Aug 4 to the government to enter its defence against the suit filed by Chin Peng four months ago.

Chin Peng, born Ong Boon Hua, 81, had filed the suit on behalf of himself and his followers, seeking a declaration that the 1989 Peace Treaty signed between the CPM and the Malaysian government in Hadyai, Thailand was still valid.

He also sought damages and an injunction to prevent the Malaysian government or its agents from making libelous statements about him.
The suit was filed following reports on March 21 and May 6 that Deputy Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin had announced that Radio Television Malaysia would air documentaries on the atrocities committed by the communists after the Second World War and for a decade following Malaysia's independence.Chin Peng, who was born in Sitiawan, Perak, now lives in Thailand and has resorted to the courts to seek to return to Malaysia to live out the rest of his days

*Quoted from Doug Larson