Monday, 29-Sep-2003 8:14 PM

Dulu kawan, sekarang lawan; dulu lawan, sekarang kawan

I remember during the days when the Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah-Musa Hitam ‘Team B’ challenged the Dr Mahathir Mohamad-Ghaffar Baba ‘Team A’ for control of Umno, the dominant partner in the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional. We were then campaigning for ‘Team A’ that was running behind by about ten percent or so votes. (We always like to support the underdog, never the winner).

The trend then was to lepak (squat) at the many five-star and four-star hotel coffeehouses all over Kuala Lumpur city and move from table to table running down ‘Team B’. Towards midnight, the eve of voting day, we would then move room-to-room as a last ditch attempt to sway the voters.

My ‘territory’ was the Plaza Hotel.

As I was loudly expounding on the virtues of why we should support ‘Team A’ and why ‘Team B’ should be rejected, one delegate from Kelantan, clearly a Tengku Razaleigh supporter, came over to our table and said, “Dulu kawan, sekarang lawan. Dulu lawan, sekarang lawan. Jadi, jangan hentam kuat sangat.” He then smiled mischievously and walked back to his table.

What he said, literally translated, means, “Before friends, now enemies. Before enemies, now friends. So, don’t slam too hard.” What he was trying to tell me was, don’t run down Tengku Razaleigh too ruthlessly. Today, he may be an enemy, but once upon a time he was a friend, and, in future, he could become a friend again.

And that’s politics for you. How many allies have you seen turn foe, and vice versa?

Chin Peng and his Malayan Communist Party (or is it the Communist Party of Malaya?) would fit this ‘ideology’ beautifully. At one point of time, they were at war with Malaya. Then, the war ended and a peace treaty was signed in Thailand. Chin Peng, however, is still regarded as ‘the enemy’ and cannot be allowed back into the country.

The argument for not allowing Chin Peng to return is because of the number of people, security personnel especially, who died in that war.

When the Vietnam War ended and Vietnam finally became independent, a high-powered delegation from that newly independent nation visited Malaysia. I cannot quite remember who they were or when they made that first historical visit though.

The Malaysian media interviewed the members of the delegation and asked them whether they would still continue to support (give training, arms, ammunition, etc.) the Communist guerrillas, then still quite active in the Malaysian jungles. The reply was “No!”

“We supported the Communist movement in Malaysia because we were instructed to by China,” replied the delegation head. “China then was supporting North Vietnam. Now, we are no longer allied to China. So we no longer support the Communist movement in Malaysia.”

“But, of course, we will not know what we would do in future. But, as for now, we no longer lend support to the Malaysian Communist movement.”

I believe, Vietnam, then, had its own problems with China and there were various incidences of border clashes.

Later, Malaysia became friends with China too and the travel ban to China was lifted. Eventually, the travel ban to other countries as well, such as South Africa and Cuba, was also lifted leaving Israel as the only remaining country we did not recognise.

Chin Peng and his Communist Terrorists (CTs) may have been the cause of much death and destruction. No one can deny this. But, to a large extent, their ‘success’ at wreaking havoc was due to the support and aid Vietnam and China gave them. Why are we, therefore, friends with Vietnam and China?

If Chin Peng and his band of merry men are bad hombres, then certainly the Vietnamese and Chinese are as well. But the Vietnamese and Chinese are most welcome to this country though, and its citizens can even stay here indefinitely if they were to bring a couple of millions USD to invest in Malaysia, and could even get Malaysian citizenship if they bring a large enough amount of money. (Malaysian citizenship is, after all, for sale).

Could it be because Chin Peng is broke that he is not welcome? (Don’t know whether he is though. He may be rolling in hard cash). If he brought in USD100 million and set up a factory in Dr Mahathir’s or Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s constituency, the PM or Deputy PM would personally greet him and grace the official launching of the factory.

Anyway, denying Chin Peng his right to come home is a most unIslamic thing to do. Amongst one of the many crimes under the Islamic law of Hudud is waging war against the state. In such a situation, the perpetrator is allowed to repent and, if he does, then he must be pardoned and assimilated back into society. Since Chin Peng has repented (by signing the peace treaty), then he must be pardoned and must no longer be punished for his crimes.

Chin Peng did not commit murder. Chin Peng waged war. And, in any war, lives are lost. But, once the war ends, then that is the end of the matter. Unless one commits atrocities, one cannot be personally held accountable for war deaths.

The Japanese, when they occupied Malaya during WWII, did commit atrocities. Yet, we ‘Look East’ and practically hand the entire economy of this country to the Japanese. Should the Japanese not also be banned from this country, especially its Royal Family? And what about the British, and the Dutch, and the Portuguese? They too killed many locals when they occupied our country. And what about the Indonesians during the Confrontation? Many Malaysian soldiers died at the hands of the Indonesian armed forces when they tried to invade our country.

Sometimes, the past needs to be left in the past. If we keep resurrecting the past, then we would have many more enemies than friends. No one would disagree that Chin Peng did wreak death and destruction. But so did countless others. But why is Chin Peng singled out for punishment? And, remember, Islam says that, once one repents, one must be pardoned. If God will pardon sinners who repent, who is man to do otherwise?

RAJA PETRA KAMARUDIN

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