BAD POLICIES, RACISM:From Siti Aishah to Azahari, Chin Peng - what‘s wrong with Malaysia

The Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said there was no need to arrest Siti Aishah Abdul Wahab if she returned to the country.

Although Siti Aishah was on the ‘wanted list’ in Malaysia in the 70’s for her involvement in ‘extremist (I repeat, extremist) communist activities,’ Malaysians who have read about her plight being a slave for 30 years in London, would agree with Khalid to welcome her return with an open heart.

TV3 would probably be flashing the human interest side of the story as part of its version of Jejak Kasih, and everyone would forget Siti Aishah’s earlier years as a leftist.

She is after all a fellow Malaysian, who had her sets of beliefs. They do not call it ‘puppy love’ without a reason. Yes, it was a threat back then, when communism was very much alive. Today, a frail woman of 69, the only way Malaysians should respond is to allow her to be re-united with her family on humanitarian grounds.

Azahari and Noordin Top

Two Malaysians, Dr Azhari Husin and Noordin Mohammad Top were believed to be the masterminds behind several bombings in Indonesia -- the 2003 JW Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta, the 2004 Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta, the 2005 Bali bombings and the 2009 JW Marriott - Ritz-Carlton bombings, and perhaps, even the 2002 Bali bombing.

If my memory does not fail me, when one of them was killed during a police raid on his hideout in Indonesia, the Malaysian government ordered for a special RMAF flight to collect his body for a proper Muslim funeral in Malaysia. This had initial shocked me, when the death of a “wanted” terrorist was given such a “heroic” treatment that some of our soldiers would dare even to dream of having.

“Gosh! What would our American friends think about Malaysia, a land of the terrorists?” I had asked myself, when I read it in the news. “And what becomes of a government that glorified the ‘martyrdom’ of its citizens out there operating as terrorists?”

But then again, when you think about it, what can a dead man do? Going by the thwarted logics of some, wouldn’t the return of his dead body revive the spirit of terrorism in this nation? Common sense tells us that a dead man for whatever cause he believes in, is as good as gone.

At least, on humanitarian ground, the wishes of his family should be granted that the dead body be given a proper burial in his home ground amidst grieving relatives.

Chin Peng

What a big contrast the political scene was less than six months ago, when an ailing 88-year-old Ong Boon Hua, born and bred in Setiawan, Perak, was hoping to return to Malaysia, but was refused entry by the Malaysian government.

The former leader of the now-defunct Malayan Communist Party (MCP) had fought against the British and Commonwealth forces in an attempt to turn Malaya into another independent communist state. He then waged a campaign against Malaya after it had gained independence in 1957 but the guerilla warfare ended when the MCP signed a peace accord with the Malaysian government in 1989.

MCP is as good as gone, with the collapse of the Berlin wall, the break-up of the former USSR, and the adoption of capitalism by the world’s only surviving Communist government. Double-headed UMNO Baru politicians, while establishing the full diplomatic ties with Communist China, told us that the return of Chin Peng, who operated mainly from Beijing, China, would open up the wounds of its veteran soldiers.

One of my own relatives was a Special Branch with the Royal Malaysian Police in the seventies, and his assignment was to fight the communist insurgency. While Siti Aishah, born and bred a Malay, is known for her ‘extremist communist activities’ in the 70s, UMNO politicians have time and again equated Communists with the Chinese. I wonder why!

During Chin Peng’s exile, although the MCP was a Malayan branch of the worldwide communist influence, the communists under him had also fought with the Thai army. Yet, the retired Thai army general was forgiving enough as to advise his counterpart in Malaysia to allow Chin Peng to return to his place of birth, but to no avail. It makes me wonder if Thai’s Buddhism has taught its people better, while UMNO Baru’s brand of Islam has only created more division amongst the people.

Instead of allowing the ailing communist leader back to his hometown, there was a big flare up of emotion, understandably of certain families who were killed by the Communists during the Insurgency. But which Chinese family did not have a relative killed by the Japanese Army, yet when former prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad looked East, were the Chinese ever resentful?

Stretching this further, one has to ask: Doesn’t the word ‘forgiveness’ exist in the Malay dictionary? If Allah is great, and He is merciful, even to those who are wicked and evil, who are we to condemn Chin Peng before the great Judgment Day? In legal terms, we have committed a prejudice, or forming an opinion before a case has been brought before the judge.

Instead, Chin Peng, a Malaysian citizen, was buried in Bangkok, Thailand, much to the shame of the Malaysian Government!

What is the Big Difference?

The question is: “What is the big difference between Siti Aishah, Noordin Top, Azahari Husin and Chin Peng?”

This question has to be asked. All four of them believed in ideologies that were not friendly to Malaysians at large, but why the special treatment given to one and not the other?

To call this another form of racism is unfair to most Malaysians, because most Malaysians would in fact frown upon the Home Minister’s recent statement that he would not even allow Chin Peng’s ashes to be smuggled back into the hometown.

You can say that I am out to debunk Zahid Ahmad Hamidi’s anything but shallow thinking. If Chin Peng’s ashes would not escape the immigration checkpoint, the country should not be burdened with tens of thousands of illegal immigrants!

If the return of Chin Peng’s ashes would lead to the building of a monument to remember him, then our museums should remove all traces of the colonial days and play up only the glories of the Malacca sultanate, with big names like Tun Perak, Sultan Mansor Shah, Puteri Hang Li Po, Laksamana Hang Tuah and his four comrades with the same surnames.

When one compares this treatment against Chin Peng with other incidences and controversies, what comes out clearly is that we are allowing a minority of people to run the country with a blinker mentality. If we continue to live with such narrow minded people, we will all just go bonkers, won’t we?

UMNO elite few, who are helming the government, make their decisions based on what is politically expedient only for their own survival. While they and their cronies continue to get richer by the seconds, majority of middle and lower income Malaysians are now being increasingly burdened with higher cost of living. Period.

The goodness of GST has suddenly become a religious topic. Gosh, guns – all 44 of them – got flushed down the toilet bowl! Jets without the engines could still soar up the sky. A Sin Chew reporter was arrested under ISA for her own safety and the Mamak Prime Minister which this country had for 22 “ugly” years, for want of cheap publicity, suddenly turned his topic to talk about his erective dysfunction, much to the shame of the Kutty family tree from Kerala.

It’s time for Malaysians everywhere, including Sabah and Sarawak, to wake up! UMNO has a membership of 3 million, so it claims. This is equivalent to about 10 percent of the country’s population, but the powers that are vested in the elite few are far too great that it has led to unending abuses. And, we Malaysians have ourselves to blame for being too timid and not speaking up enough to stop this minority few from further destroying this harmony of the races in this country.

I am personally impressed with blogger Hishammuddin Rais’ courage as a person. Despite being intimidated a number of times, he soldiered on. He was also not ashamed to say that he knows Siti Aishah personally. A friend in time of need is a friend, indeed!

If Hishamuddin can stand up for a good cause, why are we so afraid to speak up? By remaining silent, this is how the perpetrators of injustice can get away easily in this “safe” side of heaven they call Malaysia, while the rest of us would in one way suffer the consequences of their wrongdoings. - Malaysia Chronicle