I refer to Why Not's letter ' Scrap double standards and let Chin Peng return '. I would like to say that both the Japanese and CPM committed countless atrocities to the people of Malaya.

What Why Not's family had experienced during the Japanese occupation and Chin Peng's reign of terror had been repeated time and again in the Chinese villages in Sitiawan and elsewhere. For the direct victims, the wives and children, these acts can never be forgotten.

However, I would like to mention that there are differences between the two.

1) The Japanese had surrendered unconditionally, renounced terror and assisted by the Americans in particular, introduced parliamentary democracy with a constitution that forbade them to raise armies. Even today, their contribution of peacekeeping forces are only in support of efforts for affected civilians. Chin Peng and CPM did not surrender unconditionally. They had used the Malayan jungles as their bargaining chip - they could effectively run and hide, hit and run. This effectively forced our government to let them to 'demobilise'.

2) There were trials conducted to prosecute Japanese war criminals after World War II. In the case of CPM, only captured murderers were tried.

3) The Japanese now doing business in Malaysia and the world are the sons and daughters of the old Japanese regime, brought up with completely different values and objectives - not to conquer nations, but to trade. They they should not be held accountable for the actions of their forefathers. Similarly, the school mates of Chin Peng's son and his brother at ACS, Sitiawan did not put the blame of CPM's atrocities on them. It is not fair for a later generation to take the blame for an earlier one.

4) Chin Peng, during World War II, did fight the Japanese alongside the British, but it was a marriage of convenience. Each used the other for their own objectives - the British to keep colonial rule, the other to take over and form a communist Malaya. I do not see his role as fighting for his country. He was fighting for his party. His only contribution to our independence was that he was a ready 'scapegoat' that Tunku Abdul Rahman used in gaining independence.