KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 16 — Malaysia will not let former communist leader Chin Peng be laid to rest in the country, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.

Commenting on the coincidental death of the secretary-general of the now-defunct Communist Party of Malaya on Malaysia Day today, Najib said that Chin Peng would be remembered as a “terrorist leader that waged war on the nation”.

“We will not allow him to be buried in Malaysia because of the black history he had created. Furthermore, Chin Peng is not a citizen of Malaysia,” he was quoted as saying in Kota Kinabalu by national news agency Bernama today

“He did not want to be a Malaysian, so we don’t have any ties with him at all.”

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.

Ong Boon Hua, alias Chin Peng, the ‘homeless’ 85-year-old former secretary-general of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), died at 6.20am in a Bangkok hospital this morning. — Picture by Debra ChongChin Peng died at 6.20am in a Bangkok hospital today, the Bangkok Post reported.

His death was due to old age, according to the report, which added that his relatives would hold funeral rites for him on Friday.

Once Malaysia’s most wanted man, Chin Peng, whose real name was Ong Boon Hua, would have marked his 89th birthday on October 19.

He had been living in exile, mostly in Thailand, after Putrajaya barred him from returning to the country of his birth despite the terms laid down in the Haadyai Agreement 1989 involving the Thai and Malaysian governments.

In accordance with the agreement, CPM members who laid down arms would be allowed to return to their homeland if they so chose.

The Sitiawan-born former guerrilla fighter lost his bid to clear his name in the Federal Court in 2010.