'Don't forget that Chin Peng opposed democracy'

Let's not forget that Chin Peng had ambitions to make Malaysia a communist state and not a democracy, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

This was Mahathir's response when asked what would be the correct thing to do in the debate on the return of Chin Peng's ashes to Malaysia, which the Najib government has vehemently opposed.

"Let's not have this controversy. Most people feel very hurt and some thought he was not Malaysian... he did something for his own ambition to set up a communist state in this country, not a democracy," Mahathir told reporters at the International Youth Centre in Cheras.

"Why should you stir up people's feelings?"

Although Mahathir was a signatory to the 1989 Hatyai peace agreement that allowed the Communist Party of Malaya members to resettle back into Malaysian society, he declined to comment when asked whether Chin Peng had applied for citizenship.

"I work according to the advice I am given," he said.

[More to follow]