Love or loathe him, the legendary secretary-general of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) Chin Peng, 79, is a man of indomitable will. Otherwise, he could not have survived those chaotic and turbulent years, from 1939 to 1989, of incessant and intriguing struggles for political ideas, power and influence.

However, the will to survive has not degenerated into narcissism. Tempered by long years of genuinely motivated idealism, organisational discipline and experience-based intellect, his willpower is therefore blended with a balanced, sociable and normal personality that enables him to conceptually distinguish between Western colonialism and imperialism on hand, and fellow human beings from the West on the other.