KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 16 — Malay supremacy NGO Perkasa has pledged to oppose the return of Chin Peng even after his death today, describing the former Communist leader as a “violent criminal”.

Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali also urged for the exiled secretary-general of the defunct Malayan Communist Party (CPM), whose real name was Ong Boon Hua, to be erased from the nation’s history.

“I was not surprised at all (with his death). This is because of his old age, he should’ve died a long time ago,” Ibrahim said in a statement here.

“If we did not agree to allow Chin Peng’s (picture) return even when he was alive, then after his death the remains should not be allowed to be buried in Malaysia.”

Ong died at 6.20am in a Bangkok hospital today due to old age, the Bangkok Post reported and added that his relatives will hold funeral rites for him on Friday.

“The history of people like Chin Peng must be erased from the history so that it would not be known by the public, especially the young generation,” said Ibrahim.

“There are dark spots in history that must be known by the public as a lesson, but not the history of a terrorist and criminal who ruined the country.”

Once Malaysia’s most wanted man, Ong 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 to 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.

Ong was routinely described by the ruling Barisan Nasional government as a “communist terrorist” and his battle put down as a “bloody insurgency” in the mainstream media.

But Ong saw himself as a freedom fighter against colonial British rule instead, and had insisted Putrajaya stop painting him as the bad guy.