By TAY TIAN YAN
Sin Chew Daily

Talking about Chin Peng…

Wait a minute! Before we talk about a dead man, why don’t we first talk about someone still alive?

Last week, Yazid Sufaat walked out of Simpang Renggam detention centre a free man after two years.

But who the hell is this Yazid?

He is one of the country’s most notorious terrorists, and used to have very close ties with all the world’s most dreaded terrorist outfits, including ISIS, al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah.

Trained a biochemist in America, Yazid produced
Bacillus anthracis for the manufacture of biochemical weapons by terrorist organisations in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

In 2000, he stockpiled four tonnes of ammonium nitrate to be made into explosives for JI to carry out its terror assaults in this region.

He once joined al-Qaeda’s top-level secret meetings discussing the destruction of New York’s WTC twin towers in the infamous September 11 attacks.

His residence in Kuala Lumpur was used as a venue of al-Qaeda leaders’ secret talks.

After the September 11 attacks, he came back to Malaysia from Afghanistan and was subsequently detained under the ISA until 2008.

After he was set free, he enlisted militants for the IS group and was arrested again in 2013 under SOSMA.

Even in the prison he did not stop his activities, continuing to enlist new members in hope of reviving al-Qaeda.

Soon after he was released in 2017, he was arrested again, this time under POTA.

Two years later, he walks around a free man again today.

No one can tell for sure that Yazid will not go on with his terrorist activities.

So long as he is at large, and still alive, he can always go on his old tricks. He is not called “unrepentant terrorist” for nothing!

Do the Malaysian government and our politicians have any idea how to deal with this guy and his followers?

I don’t think so. They don’t even utter a word about him!

Today, these politicians are talking big, arguing that bringing back Chin Peng’s ashes will resurrect communism and disrupt social stability.

Please! Chin Peng is now dead, and we don’t even know where his scattered ashes have gone.

But our politicians are still obsessed with this thing in hope of bagging some political benefits by exploiting CPM and Chin Peng to create panic and fear in the Malaysian society.

I must say that I am not protecting Chin Peng nor glorifying CPM.

Sure enough some say he was a hero while others dismiss him as a big villain.

Arguing about whether he was a hero or villain would not yield any result if we go on disputing till kingdom come.

We can’t change or enforce the historical views of people. And I am quite sure that eight out of ten new generation Malaysians do not know who Chin Peng, or CPM, was. They don’t even know too well what communism is about.

To be honest, communism was dead in this world long ago, except in a couple of countries. Even in countries that it still survives, its connotations have largely been purged.

Whom will a dead Chin Peng intimidate? And are his ashes bothering anyone at all?

Malaysians who fought for IS in Syria and Iraq and got killed, would not have raised an eyebrow if their dead bodies were sent back here. No one would contest that they would divide this nation.

Care about people who are still alive, and do everything to keep them away from evil. Those who are now dead do not warrant this much concern from us.