Shahidan to DAP: Umno is friends with communist parties, but you befriended communist 'extremists'

KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — An Umno MP today admitted that the Opposition party is friends with communist parties, however he quickly asserted that it is communist "insurgents" which it opposes.

Arau MP Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim during a debate session in Dewan Rakyat today brought up the issue out of nowhere in a bizarre situation when a debate on revising the age to redefine youths was ongoing.

He defended his remarks and said it was even cited in history. 

“So I want to say, let us all build this nation. Build this nation without bringing up about the past. If you bring up about us, we will bring up the communist stories. We are good with communist parties, but a certain person is in good terms with communist extremists.

“We are good with communist parties, but you are all in good terms with communist terrorists! Who killed a lot of soldiers and police. So what do you say now? This is history,” Shahidan said referring to DAP. 

His remarks prompted anger from DAP’s Jelutong MP RSN Rayer and its Rasah representative Cha Kee Chin, who demanded that Shahidan retracted his remarks.

Shahidan then said he does not intend to continue, adding “sejarah tetap sejarah” (history is irrefutable) and that DAP befriended communist "insurgents" before, but not now.

The matter was then put to rest, with Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof ordered the session to go on. 

Ariff however also expressed his confusion as to why the debate sidetracked to an unrelated topic, after restoring order in the Lower House.

Malaysia was locked in a decades-long battle with communist insurgents for years after independence in 1957.

The fight with the communists officially ended in 1989 with the signing of the Hatyai Peace Accord, but the DAP has been repeatedly linked to the now-defunct Malayan Communist Party and its former secretary-general Chin Peng.