Hisham continues Mat Sabu attack: Communist remarks 'shallow’

PUTRAJAYA - Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Husseinhas described alleged remarks by a PAS MP that communists who attacked the Bukit Kepong police station in 1950 were the country’s “true heroes” as shallow and a provocative tactic to gain public attention.

He said the alleged remarks by PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabuwere “politically shallow” and “provocative”.

“He wants to provoke us (Barisan Nasional) into reacting but it is not working because many Malaysians of different races and religions have expressed their anger over the statement,” he said after attending the Prime Minister’s Hari Raya open house at Seri Perdana here yesterday.

Hishammuddin said even youths had taken to Twitter to voice their displeasure.

Mohamad, who is also Pokok Sena MP, was alleged to have said during a ceramah in Tasik Gelugor, Penang, recently that the men who attacked and killed 25 policemen and their families in the Bukit Kepong tragedy were the real heroes because they were fighting against the British.

He was also said to have made the remark that both Umno founder Datuk Onn Jaafar and the country’s first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman did not deserve to be called independence fighters because they were officers of the British administration.

However, the politician, better known as Mat Sabu, later clarified his remark, stating that those who attacked Bukit Kepong were heroes because they were freedom fighters and not because they attacked Malay policemen.

Hishammuddin said he took Mohamad’s distortion of historical facts personally as it had disparaged his late grandfather, Onn, in his struggle for independence.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he was concerned with the trend shown by PAS in disparaging the country’s former leaders while glorifying communism at the same time.

“I am very worried that this trend has been ongoing. What Mat Sabu said is part of the efforts to disparage leaders of old – maybe because they are connected with Umno,” he said.

He said it was wrong of PAS to describe the communist insurgents as being akin to the nation’s independence fighters.

“I find that the attack on the image of leaders who fought for independence has gone to the extent that even children in schools have been taught that Tunku Abdul Rahman is a traitor to the country.

“PAS is now glorifying the communists who killed many of our security forces,” he said.

- The Star