Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Posted: 03 Sep 2011 07:52 PM PDT

It was in July when I first saw Mat Sabu - a jovial gentleman in his wheelchair giving his speech at the Ops Scorpene Fund Raising Dinner. Holding his X-ray films, he told the audience the injuries he sustained during the Bersih rally with the sole intention of maintaining the credibility of his claim - and all that done with smiles on his face that reached his eyes. I had a good first impression of Mat Sabu - a jovial man oozing with earnest sincerity.

The recent uproar over Mat Sabu's alleged remarks about the attack on Bukit Kepong in 1950 during British occupied Malaya puzzled me greatly.

Mohamad Sabu, or popularly known as Mat Sabu, rocked the boat when he allegedly said the communist terrorists led by a Malay, Mat Indera, were the heroes in the attack on a police station in Bukit Kepong, Johor, during the Emergency in 1950. All the policemen and their family members including children were massacred. You can read more about the background of Bukit Kepong here. You can watch the video HERE.

Frankly, I have watched the video and cannot understand the furore.

Historically, the Bukit Kepong incident refers to an armed encounter which took place in an area surrounding the police station on February 23, 1950 between the police and the Malayan Communists in pre-independence Malaya.

The truth of the matter is this - during the Japanese Occupation (read HERE), the communists were fighting against the Japanese alongside the British and Malayans. There were many deaths. After the British left, fighting continued because of conflict of ideology. From one viewpoint, the communists were 'heroes' whilst from another, they were zeroes and enemies of the state.

Black Mamba, a commenter in Malaysiakini wrote:

Let's get this straight. The attack on the Bukit Kepong police station was before Merdeka - Aug 31, 1957. The country was colonialised by the British and all personnel who worked for the administration were under the payroll of Her Majesty, the Queen of England.

Those who went against and fought the British colonialists then are nationalists, irrespective of their party orientation. Those under employment of the British government, irrespective of their racial background, worked for the colonial masters.

If Mat Indera (Muhammad Indera), a nationalist with the communist party and his comrades, had successfully driven out the British occupiers, they would have been hailed as war heroes just like the communists in China and Vietnam who had driven out their own countrymen in the Kuomintang and the South Vietnamese Army respectively as they were aligned to the American imperialists.

Victors get to write their version of history.

Mat Sabu does not strike me as a loose cannon. Whilst others may argue that his controversial remarks have cast doubts especially among the Malay electorate where communism is taboo, I believe this is Mat Sabu's sleight of hand to deflect interest in the DUMC and Sodomy issues by throwing a red herring in BN's path.

READ MORE HERE.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Ahad, 4 September 2011

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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