In December 1955, our beloved first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman held a peace talk with Chin Peng in Baling, Kedah. In December 1989, the government of the fourth prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, signed a peace treaty with Chin Peng.

What do these two occasions have in common, although the first failed and the second succeeded? The answer is clear: Chin Peng and the Communist Party of Malaya were treated by both the Tunku and Dr Mahathir as the opposing side of a war.

So, to end a war, peace talks were held and a peace treaty concluded. The point is that fighters in wars like Chin Peng are soldiers, not "terrorists".

Soldiers may kill innocent people in war as the British troops did in Batang Kali, or the American GIs did in May Lai village in Vietnam. These killings were not acts of terrorism, but war crimes.

If Chin Peng and the Malayan communists were wrong in killing innocent people, they had committed war crimes, not terrorism. However, given that the 1989 Peace Accord was signed without any clauses on war crimes, Chin Peng and his comrades are free of any charge of such crimes.

Those who call for Chin Peng's trial and punishment for "murders" and "terrorism" are clearly ignorant of international law, treaty obligations and even politics.