Call on Government to allow former MCP Wanita leader, Shamsiah Fakih, to return to Malaysia

by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 24th May 1991:

Call on Government to allow former MCP Wanita leader, Shamsiah Fakih, to return to Malaysia.

New agency report from Bangkok has reported Thai military spokesman as saying that the Malaysian government had agreed to allow over 400 former Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) members to return to Malaysia.

Only last Sunday, the Deputy Home Minister, Datuk Megat Junid Megat Ayub, said that none of the former members of the Communist Party of Malaya have been allowed into the country.

The Government should make a clear statement on this issue, especially as it is understood that there are former CPM members who are presently in the Kamunting Detention Centre undergoing ‘rehabilitation’.

As the Malaysian Government has concluded the Haadyai Peace Agreement with the CPM in December 1989 for the CPM to lay down its 41-year armed struggle, the Malaysian Government should have greater confidence in the democratic system and allow the CPM members to return to Malaysia.

In particular, I call on the Government to allow former CPM Wanita leader, Shamsiah Fakih, who had long expressed her wish to return to Malaysia, to fulfil her wish. Shamsiah Fakih was the subject of a four-issue investigation series in Dewan Masyarakat.

If former CPM leaders like Musa Ahmad could be allowed to return to Malaysia, there is no reason why Shamsiah Fakih should continue to be excluded from returning to her homeland.