Racial overtones in attacks on communists

'Politicians who play up the communist threat are really trying to sow hatred among Malaysians and are more dangerous than the imaginary communists.'

Utusan prints caricatures of 'communist cruelty'

Ferd Tan: Can artist Hamzah Mohd Amin show us at least one evidence that these were the methods of executions that were practised by the communists? Especially the one that depicts the forcing of the imam and bilal to eat pork before execution?

The drawings by this artist, a septuagenarian who should know better, smacks of racism - why depict the communists only as Chinese?

Changeagent: Utusan Malaysia is bankrupt of ideas. What is the relevance of communists today to the living and daily necessities of all Malaysians?

To resort to fictionalised caricatures of events more than half a century ago to sell its newspaper is simply irresponsible, fallacious and untenable by today's civilised society standards.

It is high time for the daily to adhere to international journalism ethics and provide responsible reporting of news and current affairs, rather than just continuing with its modus operandi of manipulation and misinformation to create hatred among racial, political or religious groups in the country.

YF: Read Fredrick Spencer Chapman's 'The Jungle is Neutral' and one can see that the communists were almost always lacking food during their jungle-style warfare. He also depicted the communists as human as we are, though their ideologies differ.

And the ones who most suffered from the communist atrocities were those Chinese who did not cooperate with them or supply food to them. Were the communists anti-Malay? Certainly not, when their number 2 was himself a Malay.

It is obvious this is another one of Utusan Malaysia's gutter journalism to spark the flames of racism between the Malays and the non-Malays.

Loyal Malaysian: In an armed conflict, cruelty towards one's enemies is practised by both sides of the confrontation. I have no first-hand knowledge of this particular conflict, so yes, those actions are indeed cruel and should be condemned.

But Chin Peng in his book 'My Side of History' related the dismemberment of the communist dead for identification purposes by the security forces, including a documented head trophy case. What about the Batang Kali massacre?

RAW: The communist movement in Malaysia is history. The chapter on the arm struggle of the communists was closed when they formally surrendered to the government in the late 1980s.
Nowadays, no one in his serious mind views the communists (if there is still any in Malaysia) as a threat to national security. Of late, however, certain quarters have been trying to resurrect the 'communist threat'.

All this has a racial overtone as members of the now defunct Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) were mostly of Chinese descent (but it could not be said that the majority of Malayan Chinese supported the communists).

Thus, politicians who play up the communist threat (sometimes even to a ridiculous extent, such as when one Ibrahim Ali claimed that the communists were collaborating with Christians) are really trying to sow hatred among Malaysians of different races and are more dangerous to the nation than the imaginary communists.

Josephine: The country is faced with risk of bankruptcy, rising inflation, ballooning housing costs, brain drain, a laughable education system, corruption in every spectrum of society, nuclear toxic risks, budget deficits, falling FDI, loss of competitiveness, and the list goes on.

Where is our priority? Why pick on the communists only? As it was pointed out, less than 5,000 deaths are linked to the communists of Malaya. If we can forgive the Japanese who killed 100,000, or 20 times more than the communists, why we are so hypocritical?

Yet today, Malaysians from all walks of lives made generous donations to the Japanese to help them rebuild after their tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster.

Thisia: How did the Japanese treat the people when they occupied Malaya that time? Haven't we forgiven them and praised them for what they are now?

So the question is, why can we forgive Japanese for what they did and not the communists who actually started the fight for freedom in Malaya?

Azizi Khan: Does Utusan Malaysia know the difference between the Communist Emergency and the Japanese Occupation?

I think these pictures are more in line with the stories during the Japanese occupation. Perhaps we need to give Utusan a crash course in history.

Henry Teh: They also forgot to print the cartoon of two Malay journalists who spit the holy communion bread.

Linjunlin: Had Hamzah really seen the Malayan communists before? The Malayan communist' caps should have a red star in the middle and their uniform should be green.

In Hamzah's drawing, there are no red star in the middle of the hats and the uniform are brown, look more like British soldiers.

Anonymous: Has it ever occurred to Hamzah that the atrocities could have been committed by the triads wearing the communists' uniforms?

The triads were allied to the Koumintang who were at war with the communists in mainland China, and the events in Malaya in late 1945 were in fact extensions of that civil war. It was part of the strategy to deny the communists the support of the Malays.

Astro recently have shown a documentary on the "The Malayan Emergency". In interviews with the insurgents, they have mentioned a number of their comrades had died of starvation because the British and the Home Guards had tighten the control over food.

Either the documentary is a propaganda or Utusan is telling lies to paint a very bad picture of a certain racial group.

Anonimous Z: In 1950, Hamzah was 10 years old. I doubt he personally experienced or witnessed it. Had he witnessed it, he would certainly have said so. He did not even dare to say it.

He claimed that "he was called to produce the drawings", so now the question is, by whom?

Meranti Kepong: The rest of the enlightened world is laughing at the stupidity and ridiculous depiction of the false communists actions against their victims, much less the Muslims.

The artist and Utusan should be condemned for resorting to such outrageous lie and stooping so low in insulting human decency. Even the barbaric Japs who invaded Malaya in 1942 did not resort to such atrocity to humiliate the Muslims nor slaughtering a pig in their mosque.

Hence, Utusan and BN-Umno should be applauded for their fictitious ability to manufacture such falsehoods. No wonder they continue to deny the truth of Malayan history.

Arbeena: More caricatures of such nature are on the way. Have a strong heart, Malaysiakini readers.- Malaysiakini