If Chin Peng's memoirs were intended to open up rational discourse on the multi-faceted history of the nation, then the question arises as to how Malaysians should engage in an intelligent debate with him.

British historian Anthony Short's magnum opus on the Emergency, among other books, provides useful pointers such as exchange of ideas, making comparisons and contrasts, and discussing similarities and differences.

Chin Peng, 79, who was the 11th secretary-general of the now defunct Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), says in his memoirs that "it is the exchange of ideas that ultimately moves the world" and that "the barter of views still exhilarates me". (p 516)

It appears therefore that his intention in publishing My Side of History at his advanced age was to facilitate exactly this - or, in journalistic parlance, to provoke debate. He succeeded remarkably well in just a matter of weeks after the book was released..

Paradoxically, it was his 'enemies' who contributed the most by reacting to him and his stories with emotions and a mindset not dissimilar to that of the heyday of the Cold War some 50 years ago.

During a time of peace and relative prosperity, intellectual curiosity and human propensity to discover alternative views is usually stronger.

Seen in this light, there appear to be more open-minded people in China, Thailand, Britain and Malaysia, compared to some in Malaysia who are mentally besieged and stagnant.

Malay CPM leaders

The memoirs are being critically assessed in the Malaysian media and among academicians, with historians among those who have offered opinions.

A balanced report appeared in the Oct 10 edition of Malay-language weekly, Massa. It features a debate between veteran Malay-language journalist Said Zahari and Malaysian Ex-Servicemen's Association president Mansor Md. Jaafar on whether Chin Peng should be allowed to return.

Massa is affiliated to the Utusan Melayu group of publications that also publishes the Utusan Malaysia daily.

The report says one of Chin Peng's Malay comrades in the top leadership - Shamsiah Fakeh - now lives in Kuala Lumpur.

Two others, Rashid Maidin and Abdullah CD, who live in southern Thailand like Chin Peng, reportedly visited Malaysia a few years ago with the government's permission.

All three were armed insurgents during the Emergency from 1948 to 1960, and once lived and operated in China.

Massa quotes a source as revealing that about 340 communists, including about 20 Malays, returned to settle in Malaysia after a peace accord was signed between the government and CPM in 1989.

Accounts compared

Despite the wide interest shown in the memoirs, a rational comparison has yet to emerge between the recollections of Chin Peng and other authors like British historian Anthony Short.

Short wrote In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - The Communist Insurrection in Malaya (Singapore, Cultured Lotus, 2000; first published by Frederick Muller in London in 1975 under the title, 'The Communist Insurrection in Malaya, 1948-1960' ).

Three years ago, Short had anticipated that "the memoirs of Chin Peng, secretary-general of the Communist Party of Malaya and thus leader of the communist insurrection, will no doubt be a radically different account from that which follows here (in this book)".

Indeed, there are differences in some accounts of the Emergency (or "the Anti-Colonial War", as Chin Peng calls it) presented by Short and Chin Peng respectively.

For example, Short's study projects an overall image that the origin of the Emergency was rooted in the CPM's more or less carefully planned and organised offensive..

Chin Peng's account gives the impression that CPM was pressured by the fast-changing situation to pre-empt what its members perceived to be the colonists' insidious designs to suppress CPM, their former ally.

However, there are similarities in both accounts, such as the ambush and killing of British High Commissioner to Malaya Sir Henry Gurney.

According to Chin Peng, it was almost an accidental or unexpected "success" (pp 287-289), while Short says, "In spite of its careful planning and comparatively long duration, it is now evident that the ambush was not planned for the High Commissioner". ( p 305)

What about the stories that Gurney's "Chinese cook" or "the spy in the telephone exchange who was tapping the King's House line" betrayed the high commissioner?

Chin Peng does not account for this in his memoirs, and Short says it was a " possibility" or "incidental detail" that the police special branch took into account in investigating the case. (pp 304-305)

The two also appear to agree about the limited role played by Australian communist chief Lawrence Sharkey in influencing CPM to take up an armed struggle in June 1948.

Says Short: "What seems more likely is that Sharkey provided useful but by no means indispensable encouragement (for an armed struggle)". (see p 53)

Short, like Chin Peng, is critical of official accounts of the killing of 25 unarmed civilians near Batang Kali by the Scot Guards and a police patrol on Dec 12, 1948. (see Short: pp 166-169; Chin Peng: pp 239-243)

Chin Peng reveals that "the UK Ministry of Defence has remained tight-lipped" and "all police files on Batang Kali are classified to this day", while Short notes that the incident "still deserves an answer".

It is surprising that many of Chin Peng's critics in Malaysia today do not seem to remember Batang Kali. Doesn't this amount to selective memory? Or, there are different definitions of 'terrorism'?

Publication suppressed

Short, a highly-educated Briton who was born in Singapore, joined the British security forces as a soldier in Johor when the Emergency was declared and served in the military campaign until 1949.

In mid-1960, he joined the University of Malaya as an academic and was commissioned by the government of independent Malaya to write, "for publication and without censorship", the official history of the Emergency.

He was given full access to the "confidential and secret papers" of the Malayan government and most of the classified intelligence materials in London.

Later, however, the Malaysian government would not allow his manuscript to be published when it was completed in 1968, perhaps because he was too honest in his account.

After obtaining legal opinion, Short eventually decided to publish his work in London in 1975 to preserve his intellectual integrity.

His book has become a must-read on the Emergency, with the reprint now available in bookshops in Malaysia and Singapore.

Australian military historian Jeffery Grey's 2000 essay, Malaya, 1948-1960: Defeating Communist Insurgency is also worth reading.

Grey met Chin Peng in February 1999 in Canberra, Australia and reportedly had an exchange of ideas.

The Emergency, however, is just one of many episodes in the nation's historical development - other episodes too should be open to debate and discourse.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM). Wong is a former member of Parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily (now Sin Chew Daily). He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.