Mat Sabu has opened a can of worms

Mat Sabu's Bukit Kepong statement has far-reaching impact even to the extent that some are questioning whether we were really colonised.

COMMENT

Mohamad Sabu’s statement on who were the real heroes of Bukit Kepong has got historians reaching for their tomes and academicians, politicians and other know-alls debating what really happened.

Mohamad Sabu or Mat Sabu, perhaps unwittingly, has forced us to take another look at our history even to the extent of some asking were we really colonised.

Mat Sabu is alleged to have said Mat Indera and the communists were the real heroes of Bukit Kepong and not the policemen and their families who were massacred in the storming of the Bukit Kepong police station in Muar, Johor, in 1950.

Mat Sabu now has become the whipping boy of Umno and others who feel that their nationalism and patriotism is being questioned.

But will all the critisim and police reports lodged against the PAS deputy president hurt PAS? Mat Sabu is taking all this in his stride and the party might even be enjoying the sudden blaze of publicity.

PAS had succeeded in telling the young voters that Umno alone was not responsible for freeing the country from British colonisation.

And this has worked very well with PAS strategy of wooing young Malays and the Islamic party has even gone to the extent of setting up pondoks where religion is taught with a hefty dose of party ideology.

The pondok system worked for awhile and school leavers and college graduates were sent to further their studies in Middle East countries.

But when the Barisan Nasional (BN) government took over the pondoks after learning of the party’s strategy, PAS opened its door to non-Malays with its Chinese Consultative Council (CCC) in the 1980s and at present has a non-Muslim wing.

PAS knew it could not reach the older generation who were set in their ways and usually were BN supporters.

And Mat Sabu’s Bukit Kepong statement has cast doubts on the decades-old Umno and BN’s belief that they were the “freedom fighters”.

Emotional response

The response to his statement has been very emotional.The public, war veterans and the usual suspects have all pitched in with their take on the controversy.

Umno is wary of how PAS is twisting the controversy to meet its own ends.

Youth executive council member Soohaimi Shahadan, who has been watching the development, said: “Umno must handle this issue carefully because any wrong response may backfire on Umno.

“The young voters grew up in an environment where ideologies are not important as they see capitalism as the only ideology that will develop a nation and benefit the people.

“They grew up in a competitive global environment where ideologies are no longer seen as threats, as they see Malaysia having trade relations with other countries regardless of ideologies.

“They see and know communism is eroding in countries such as Vietnam, Cuba, Russia and now China and they know, in order to have trade relations, political relations are needed.”

“And when some professors say Malaysia was never colonised, they question the need to celebrate Merdeka,” Soohaimi added.

The way it is being played out now shows that PAS has the upper hand. And Umno has to tread carefully so as not to ruffle the feathers of the young voters.