After a major hiccup, Chinese-language daily Nanyang Siang Pau has agreed to serialise the memoirs of legendary Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng, with the first installment to appear on Monday.

Malaysiakini has learnt that eight chapters of the translated version of Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History - which is co-authored by Singapore-based veteran Australian journalists Ian Ward and Norma Miraflor - will be published by Nanyang as a part of their out-of-court settlement agreement after a civil suit was filed against the newspaper.

The original civil suit was initiated in the Ipoh High Court by the Australian duo and their publishing company Media Masters against Nanyang for alleged breach of two commercial contracts.

The two parties had originally signed contracts for Nanyang to publish translated extracts of the memoirs, and subsequently to translate the book into Chinese.

However, Nanyang - which is owned by MCA - later pull out of the agreement because it had received "a verbal caution and written advice" from the Home (now Internal Security) Ministry not to proceed with the venture.

In a statement of defence filed in the Ipoh High Court on June 14 last year, Nanyang claimed to have received verbal caution from the ministry that the serialisation of Chin Peng's memoirs could "further inflame public passion and anger".

It is not clear what had lead to the government's change of heart.

The memoirs, which was originally written in English and released two years ago, has since been translated into Chinese by more than 12 multilingual translators, including a lawyer and five former senior editors of major Chinese-language newspapers, among others, malaysiakini columnist and veteran Chinese educationist Lee Ban Chen.

The Chinese edition has been approved by the Malaysian government for public sale and distribution.

Singapore visit

In mid-October last year, Chin Peng, 80, toured Singapore for three days and spoke in a close-door academic seminar organised by the Institute of South East Asian Studies headed by a former Singapore ambassador to Malaysia, K Kesavapany.

In Singapore, Chin Peng also met Elizabeth Choy Su Moi, 94, who was detained and tortured by the Japanese military's secret police or Kempetai for 193 days for allegedly supplying banned radio parts to the Allies' prisoners of war interned in Singapore in 1943.

While Chin Peng - who is now based in Thailand - has been allowed to visit Singapore, which was his first in almost 50 years, the ex-communist leader has yet to gain approval to visit his home country, Malaysia.

Meanwhile, another two memoirs by veteran CPM leaders, Ibrahim Chik and Shamsiah Fakeh, are also now on sale in Malaysia.

The Malay-language memoirs has also stirred controversy with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia lambasted for publishing the books.