NO PLACE FOR COMMUNISTS IN MALAYSIA, SAYS MINISTER

KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 (Bernama) -- The communists have no place in the
country because their sins for killing thousands of people in the then Malaya
cannot be forgotten, said Information, Communications and Culture Minister Dr
Rais Yatim.

As such, he urged leaders who had expressed positive sentiments for the
former leader of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), Chin Peng, to state their
stand clearly without hiding behind the cloak of their respective political
parties.

"My comment is simple, Chin Peng and his commandos who had killed many
people in the past certainly do not deserve any consideration from us," he told
reporters after delivering a lecture on 1Malaysia to senior officers of his
ministry here MOnday.

He said this when asked to comment on the call by the northern state of
Penang Gerakan party that Chin Peng be allowed to return to Malaysia on
humanitarian grounds.

Rais also called on Malaysians not to be hasty in following and supporting
the innovations made by certain groups particularly bloggers who tried to
idolise communism.

"The communists had abused this country and we had been shackled through
killings and terrible actions committed by them. The thousands who had died at
the hands of the communists should be sufficient for us to be remorseful so that
we do not issue statements that can make us forget the atrocities committed by
the regime then," he said.

Asked whether the government would take action such as those provided under
the Internal Security Act (ISA) against those who tried to give a positive
picture of the communists, Rais said he would bring the matter up at the Cabinet
meeting later.

"The ISA is not under my jurisdiction, but I'm discussing with the minister
concerned so that he too would be prepared to look at such a tendency," he said.

Recently, Penang Gerakan chairman Dr Teng Hock Nan asked the government to
allow Chin Peng to return to Malaysia on humanitarian grounds as the communist
terrorism which was rampant around the 1950's throughout the world including in
China and Russia had undergone transformation.
-- BERNAMA