I refer to Charles F Moreira's letter . I must state at the outset that I reserve my judgement o­n the question of peace and war in Iraq.

What I seriously question and challenge is Charles' characterisation of the Umno-backed 'Peace Malaysia' as part of the global anti-imperialist struggle.

Charles seems to still pride himself to be 'on the left', but he should know that Umno is a direct product of the marriage of convenience between British neo-colonialism and the local feudal-comprador classes.

After brutally suppressing the genuine struggle for national liberation of progressive Malay nationalism and the Communist Party of Malaya, British imperialists and neo-colonialists helped to set up Umno in 1946 as a controllable puppet to protect its post-colonial interests (just as American imperialists set up the Hamid Karzai puppet regime in Afghanistan after November 2001)

Umno has inherited from British colonialism the emergency laws which is now in the form of the Internal Security Act as well as the systems of media control and police Special Branch. Under the Umno-dominated government, Malaysia also signed military treaties with British neo-colonialists and American imperialists, like the Five Power Defence Arrangements.

Last year, the Umno-dominated government also agreed to sell out our national sovereignty by agreeing to set up a US-sponsored 'anti-terror centre'. It has also been buying arms from the American imperialists and British neo-colonialists from independence till now.

'Peace Malaysia' is therefore a grand deception to cover up the real imperialist connections of Umno with the warmongering elite in London and Washington. Its hypocritical slogan of 'peace' is o­nly for the consumption of the credulous and malleable people who do not know the real history of Malaya and Malaysia.