Communists love Capitalism !

In today Sunday Star's numerous essays on the Malaysian Communist leader Chin Peng, this is the most interesting to me and I think it says it all - Capitalism, though with its many flaws and extremes, is the still best system in the world. Not only Mr. Chin Peng depends on it for his old age, his political masters - China is now probably the world's current greatest capitalistic nation:-

Asked how he managed financially, his answer is wonderfully ironic:

“Several of my close comrades and I pooled the money we received after the Peace Accord and dabbled in the Hong Kong stock market. Our funds were managed by a trusted former guerilla who was meticulous and good at making money from the stock market.

“We used some of the money to rebuild our lives and reinvested the rest in stocks and investments funds.

“I am not good in business but my friends are. We managed to avoid losses even when the market crashed in 1997 and during the current recession period. The returns have been good enough to see me through in life as an independent person.”

In other words, a group of die-hard communists were saved from a life of penury by the most capitalistic of instruments, the stock market!