By Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | September 5, 2011
Free Malaysia Today
Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Umno hasn’t got leadership. My take on that statement is that it is the damnest indictment on Prime Minsiter Najib Tun Razak’s leadership.
Umno is now reduced to the stature of a beggar – scrounging at the supposed faux pas committed by PAS deputy president Mat Sabu.
What has Mat Sabu actually said that caused so much consternation?
Mat Sabu mentioned the name of Mat Indera, the Batu Pahat Malay born in Peserai who led the attack on the police barrack at Bukit Kepong.
The barrack was commanded by an English man representing the colonial government then.
I think we are missing the point here. Mat Sabu wasn’t glorifying the communists or communism.
He didn’t even say anything about communism. He was asking his audience to take a relook at the treatment of history on the role of Mat Indera.
To Mat Sabu, history has unjustly treated Mat Indera and we, the public, have accepted the official version of history – hook, line and sinker.
Was Mat Indera a simple terrorist sans a greater purpose and therefore deserving the description of a villain and terrorist?
Villifying Mat Indera
It now seems the preferred version of revised history is to see and value Mat Indera as a freedom fighter bent on kicking out the British imperialists.
Certainly the people in Mat Indera’s kampung in Batu Pahat refused to accept the vilification of Mat Indera’s memory.
The criminalisation of Mat Indera is part of the indoctrination and propaganda carried out by British imperialism.
Mat Indera joins the list of so many other freedom fighters who dared rise up to challenge Britsih hegemony.
Nowadays the Malayan people could no longer accept nor tolerate the infamy enforced on people like Pandak Endut, on Tok Janggut and Mat KIlau and so many others.
Mat Indera certainly doesn’t deserve to be dumped into the dustbin of history as just “one of those” terrorists.
Why is Umno concerned?
Over the last few days, I had the opportunity to finish reading the memoir of one Shamsiah Fakeh – Memoir Shamsiah Fakeh- Dari AWAS ke Rejimen ke-10.
PKMM preceded Umno
If you recall, her name re-emerged with some notoriety recently when the Bersih 2.0 marchers on July 9 were said to be influenced by her actions.
Shamsiah was a member of Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) – a left-leaning Malay political party formed in 1945.
It was the first political party that openly declared its mission to be that of securing independence for Malaya.
In that sense, PKMM preceded Umno in its commitment to secure Merdeka for the Malayan people.
Umno leaders at that time scoffed and chided and were dismissive of the manifest desire to gain independence.
They often derided those who wanted independence as fanciful dreamers who couldn’t even manufacture a needle.
What is then alarming about Mat Sabu’s faux pas is the fear that it may lead to a widespread revision of history.
If it snowballs into a widespread revision of history, then Umno’s actual role MAY itself be diminished.
And it will no longer enjoy an unchallenged and monopolistic place in our nation’s history.
Politically it will also mean that Umno will find it increasingly difficult to claim absolute legitimacy as the nation’s only political force to have fought for Merdeka.
Its own heroes will be brought down to size.
This excerpt is from the writer’s blog sakmongkolak47. The writer is a FMT columnist.