Minister refuses to retract remarks on tribute to war dead
A memorial to anti-Japanese fighters who died in the second world war has caused an uproar, with Chinese community leaders furious at their Malay counterparts for labelling it a monument to communists.
The 5-metre-high stone slab was unveiled last week at Nilai Memorial Park, about 20km south of the capital. It has inscriptions in Chinese, English, Japanese, Malay and Tamil stating that it is a memorial for all Malaysians.
The pre-war loyalties of the ethnic Chinese were divided between the Kuomintang and the Nanyang Communist Party, later renamed the Communist Party of Malaya. After a failed post-war insurrection remembered for its bloody terror, the communists surrendered in 1989 and disappeared from the political scene.
The Kuomintang loyalists reshaped themselves into today's mainstream Chinese political parties and remain staunchly anti-communist, while many other Chinese see the communists as patriots caught on the wrong side of history. Most Malays equate communism and its followers with 'pure evil'.
'This memorial is insensitive to all Malaysians who died resisting the Japanese,' said Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin.