The Malayan Emergency was a tragic aftermath of the Second World War and one of the first conflicts of the Cold War. Unfortunately, many Malaysians can only see it either as dastardly Chin Peng and his band of communist terrorists killing hapless villagers or conversely Commonwealth troops shooting up suspected communities a la Batang Kali. I believe the truth of what actually happened between 1945-1960 is somewhere in between the two versions.

The post-war struggle for Southeast Asia was indeed brutal and Malaya was no exception. If we all recognise it for the civil war that it was, I think that we would get much closer to the truth of the situation. In civil wars, excesses are committed on the same populace by both sides. Unlike the Japanese occupation, which is still seen today as a foreign invasion, the Emergency tore at the very fabric of Malayan society and pitted neighbour against neighbour.

This would help explain the heartfelt anger and bitterness by many malaysiakini readers even after 50 years, all of which are valid and true. Equally tragic were the lost of the villagers in Perak and Batang Kali at the hands of colonial troops and their voices are forever silenced. Where is justice for the latter?

What transpired between the British occupiers and the communist insurgents will probably never be fully revealed because of the many years of propaganda taught to provide a neat and tidy history of that period.

On the part of the insurgents, there is no doubt a strong bias to justify the war as one against colonialism. That is the only way that someone like Chin Peng could justify the subsequent years of deprivation and exile from the homeland. Obviously the leaders of Malaysia like the Tunku had to be hard-nosed and tough to beat the communists; the alternative would have been the fate of South Vietnam and Cambodia. Those were dangerous times and the formation of the nation itself was questionable at times.

What is even more important for modern Malaysians is this: are we mature enough as a society to confront the ghosts from the past without renewing the conflict or falling upon each other?

From the brisk sales of Chin Peng's memoirs , it looks like a new generation is eager to get the view from "the other side". Despite the protest from some quarters, Chin Peng's story is as much a part of the Malaysian story as Tunku's London negotiations. In a democracy, the greatest strength of a society is to be able to read two sides of history and form a national consensus on the best way to interpret the past.

The question of the return of Chin Peng is probably more prickly than the publication of his book. Putting him on trial and punishing him will probably open up even more wounds than heal. It will also put Malaysia under international scrutiny needlessly.

Remember that the 1987 accord was not an all-out surrender of the Communist Party of Malaya but more like an honourable armistice. Subsequently the Malaysian government reneged upon the right of return by former CPM members.

If Chin Peng returns as a visiting foreign national, attempts to arrest him and put him on trial in Malaysia will contravene the terms of the said accord. Personally, I think the nation has more important challenges ahead than to put a decrepit old man on trial.

Let us hope that the atrocities of the Malayan Emergency will serve as an inoculation to prevent future generations from resorting to armed strife to settle social and political disagreements.