PUTRAJAYA, Sept 17 — Putrajaya’s refusal to allow former Malayan Communist leader Chin Peng to be buried in his Perak hometown is a stain on the country’s honour, DAP’s Karpal Singh said today.

The opposition party chairman chided the federal government for breaking the three-way peace deal it inked 24 years ago in Hat Yai with the Malayan Communist Party (CPM) and the Thai government that put an end to the decades-long guerilla war that threatened the two Southeast Asian nations’ democracy and economic growth.

“It amounts to that, and it’s not good for the country if international agreements are not honoured,” the veteran lawyer and lawmaker told reporters, when asked if he felt Malaysia had broken the Hat Yai accord.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said they will not allow the former CPM secretary-general—born Ong Boon Hua but better known by his communist nom-de-guerre Chin Peng—to be buried on Malaysia soil because of the “black history he had created”.

“Furthermore, Chin Peng is not a citizen of Malaysia. He did not want to be a Malaysian, so we don’t have any ties with him at all,” Najib was quoted as saying in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah by state news wire Bernama.

Separately, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said on Twitter that security had been heightened at borders and entry points to prevent attempts to smuggle Chin Peng’s remains into the country.

“All entry points into Malaysia monitored and men alerted to prevent remains of Chin P to enter the Country @PDRMsia,” according to a tweet on his @KBAB51 Twitter page. The exiled Ong died yesterday in a Bangkok hospital, aged 88. His last wish was to be buried alongside his father and grandfather in Sitiawan, Perak.

Among the terms of the Hat Yai Accord signed on December 2, 1989, CPM members who laid down their arms would be allowed to return to their homeland if they wanted.

Among the communist party members allowed home included its chairman Abdullah CD, though Malaysia has routinely denied Chin Peng the same treatment.

The Sitiawan-born former guerrilla fighter had launched a legal campaign to be allowed back into Malaysia in 2009, but lost his bid in the Federal Court in 2010.

Karpal, who joins the chorus of Pakatan Rakyat leaders asking the government to allow Chin Peng’s remains into the country, said Malaysians must be objective when considering the latter’s wish to be buried at home.

He also brushed aside Najib’s insistence that Chin Peng was not a Malaysian citizen, arguing that a birth certificate is not the only means to prove a person was born and raised in a particular place.

“The fact that so many people don’t have birth certificates does not mean they are not citizens. You can prove it through other means, such as family and friends.

“We must accept that if not for the communists working with the British to fight against the Japanese, the Japanese would still be here, we never know.

“But for all the atrocities committed by the Japanese, they have since been forgiven. Chin Peng has not been allowed back in his lifetime, so at least in death we should allow him that.

“When one person is dead, the counter is closed. It brings up a different perspective from what it was before,” Karpal said.