The Penang High Court has fixed May 25 to hear exiled former Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) leader Chin Peng's application to return to Malaysia with hundreds of his comrades, according to his counsel Darshan Singh Khaira today.

Chin Peng had filed the application through his counsel on March 4 and named the Home Ministry, inspector general-of-police, the armed forces chief and the government as defendants.

The former CPM secretary-general had also filed two other applications seeking to allow him to enter the country temporarily in order to be present during the court's proceedings.

"Although the first hearing date for the main application has been fixed, however they have not fixed the dates for the two supplementary applications," Darshan said when contacted.

"Obviously the two supplementary applications have to be fixed earlier (than the main application) and heard first," he added.

Darshan said he would be meeting a senior federal counsel next Monday to seek the hearing for the supplementary applications to be heard at the earliest opportunity.

Unusual practice

He also revealed that court documents pertaining to Chin Peng's application have been sealed but did not know the reason behind the move.

"This is a very uncommon and unusual practice. This leads to the denial of access to the court documents when these documents are considered public documents once they are filed," he said.

Meanwhile, an ex-serviceman from Penang is expected to file an application seeking the court to declare the Sitiawan-born Chin Peng's rights to return to Malaysia. Details of the application are expected to be divulged at a press conference by Darshan in Penang tomorrow.

The Ex-Servicemen's Association of Malaysia had opposed Chin Peng's return to the country and called on the government to ban him from entering Malaysia, saying it would "rekindle the painful memories of our soldiers who were killed".

In his applications, Chin Peng had cited the peace treaty, known as the 1989 Haadyai Peace Accord, inked between the party and the government to be followed.

Requested rejected

Chin Peng, who currently resides in Thailand, had said his followers and him had sought to comply with the government's conditions so they could return to their homeland and "live peacefully in our last days" but to no avail.

"We now have no choice but to file this application in court as a last resort. We wish to come back to be good filial children and visit our ancestors, parents and family graves," he was previously quoted as saying.

Chin Peng, the nom de guerre of Ong Boon Hua, was the 11th secretary-general of the once powerful CPM, which fought against British colonialism, the Japanese occupation and the newly independent governments of both Malaysia and Singapore for over half a century.

The party's armed struggle, which began in June 1948, ended with the peace agreement signed between CPM and the governments of Malaysia and Thailand in 1989.

The government previously had rejected his entry, claiming Chin Peng is linked to a banned organisation with a "history of perpetrating terrorism" in the country.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had said he would leave it to the court to decide on Chin Peng's fate.