CAN we be so unforgiving? Yes, many have attacked, caused us much anger and harm; the Japanese did, but we eventually forgave them.

Under an agreement with the Communist Party of Malaya (Dec 2, 1989), we note 442 communists applied to return to the country, and 406 were allowed to including CPM leaders like Abdullah C.D., Shamsiah Fakeh and Musa Ahmad.

And we had Chin Peng, too, applying to come home. Today, I see many people still dislike him, while others feel sorry for him, for the situation he is in. He has also failed in legal avenues to return home.

Now 85, this former guerilla is apologetic. “I take full responsibility for my comrades’ actions,” he says, and adds “that was a war in which you say we killed, but we got killed too.”

He wants to come home to Sitiawan to pay his respects to his parents and be buried there. Let us in humanity grant him this wish. He is not coming to fight us, just to die. Let us not be trapped in the past. We must move on. I say let bygones be bygones.

Bulbir Singh
Seremban

Source: The Sun – November 26, 2009