I refer to the Malaysiakini report Gerakan to Najib: Let Chin Peng come home .

On December 10, 2003 (more than five years ago), I wrote this letter to the News Straits Times which, as expected, never published it.

It is hoped that after the powers-that-be have read my humble earnest appeal now, Chin Peng may realise his last wish before his death which is nigh as he is very old now.

‘There have been various reports and letters to the press responding to Chin Peng's dream of returning to his country of birth for the last time to pay respects to, and to pray at his father's grave.

Many voiced strongly against his homecoming for reasons which they themselves hold valid and which I dare not dispute, while others felt that Chin Peng's return now would not pose any problem to Malaysia. Finally, of course, it was the prime minister who said ‘no', and the matter rested there.

In today's NST, front page, the prime minister said that policies are not cast in stone and could be reversed if and when the need arose. At long last, we now have our, repeat our, very own prime minister, a man who has ears for his people and who is prepared to change policy matters if by changing, the nation and the people could benefit thereby.

That statement by the PM encourages me to venture this open letter of appeal to him to reconsider Chin Peng's case, on the following grounds:

1. The NST's Dec 8 story mentioned about the presence at Nilai of at least two individuals from China, Ye and Lu, who were former members of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) and Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and who had entered this country to pay respects to their former slain comrades.

Viewed from this angle, Chin Peng deserves more sympathy from us as he probably still maintains his nationality and unlike those present at Nilai, he wants only to visit his father's grave - not those of his former comrades, and to see, for the last time, his birthplace before he dies.

It has been said that ‘All is fair in war as in love', and whilst we really sympathise with those who lost their loved ones during the ‘Emergency', many CPM members, too, were killed in the course of pursuing what they were indoctrinated or brainwashed into believing in.

As a teenager then, I had witnessed on many occasions rubber tappers, mostly women, branded as communist sympathisers, shot and killed and had their dead bodies strapped on top of Armoured Personnel Carriers, openly paraded through the towns (a psychological warfare tactic).

3. The Japanese occupied our country Malaya then, and sent us through untold hardships and tortures for more than three and half years with not a single grain of rice to eat, only tapioca scrapings and sweet potatoes, day after day.

We lost our loved ones too, and the writer personally lost a dear cousin as we had to live on the fringes of the jungle to cultivate tapioca and sweet potatoes and were exposed to the dangers of tigers and poisonous snakes. My cousin died of cobra bite.

An uncle was taken away by the Japanese and he never returned. The raping of woman folk by Japanese soldiers was common. Do we hate the Japanese now? I do not think so, because they were acting under orders from the Imperial Government of Japan which had a relatively small force against the massive populace of many countries they had conquered.

Hence they had to be ruthless and instill fear to command respect and subservience. Today, we welcome the Japanese for their involvement in our country's development and for their investment which we seek.

We do not ban them from entering Malaysia, for we know that they too took a long while to overcome the sufferings and losses at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the humiliation of defeat. Our prime minister is in Tokyo for an Asean-Japan Meeting.

4. Not too long ago, we received President Castro of Communist Cuba. We are building an excellent relationship with the fastest growing economy in Asia, ie, Communist China. Currently, the Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il of Communist North Korea is here in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and Communist North Korea.

Communist Vietnam is now a full-fledged member of Asean and our sportsmen and athletes are now in Vietnam participating in the SEA Games. So you see, we have befriended, and in fact, cooperated very closely with all the four remaining communist countries in the world. We no longer fear communism anymore.

We are committed to our present system of government and as far as we are concerned, the die is cast so what can an aging ex-CPM leader do to change us under the present circumstances?

5. Another aspect, which has so far escaped the attention of present Malaysians is the fact that, indirectly and unintentionally, Chin Peng and his followers had in fact assisted Umno in its struggle to gain independence for this country from the British, or at least, accelerated the process.

It is my belief that the British from the late forties to the fifties, being burdened with the twin problems of the Communist insurgency led by Chin Peng on one hand, and the struggles by Umno against the Malay Union on the other, finally decided to call it a day and gracefully granted Merdeka to Malaya.

In this way, we may even consider Chin Peng as The Prodigal Son of Malaya, wanting to come home.

Before anyone dashes off with the idea that I am a Leftist or whatever, please rest assured that I am not any of these, and I do not know Chin Peng personally, apart from being pointed to the house where Chin Peng's family dwelled, during my Outward Bound School hiking in the Dindings vicinities in 1957.

If, by the remotest of chances, the prime minister reconsiders Chin Peng's case and approves his return to Malaysia for the sole purpose of paying final filial respects to his late father, it is my fervent hope that we, Malaysians of the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi era, will be big enough in our hearts not to protest for the reasons I have stated above.