Senator Syed Husin Ali, who ought to know a bit of the history of the left-wing movement in Malaysia because of past involvement in it, said historian Khoo Kay Kim has been inaccurate with some of the facts of that history.
This is ironic as Professor Emeritus Khoo is often at pains trying to dispel popular misconceptions about historical personages and events and generally laments the lack of seriousness with which the subject is treated in the academic and public spheres.
The former president of Parti Rakyat Malaysia who led it to merge with Parti Keadilan Nasional to become Parti Keadilan Rakyat in 2002, Syed Husin disputed several points of left-wing history that Prof Khoo had raised in an interview with Malaysiakini.
"It's not my intention to engage in polemics with him," said Syed Husin, 75, who in his youth in the 1950s was immersed in left-wing politics and befriended several of its leading lights.
"The points raised by Prof Khoo are not of small significance and so I feel compelled to set them right," added the former Universiti Malaya professor.
Boestaman not a Sukarno clone
Some details that Prof Khoo had shed on Ahmad Boestaman, a paladin of the left-wing movement from just before the Second World War to the early part of Malayan independence, were "way off the mark", according to Syed Husin.
"Firstly, Boestaman was not from Indonesia, as Prof Khoo contends, but was born in Behrang in Perak and though he was of Minangkabau stock, he was Malayan more than anything else," said Syed Husin.
"Boestaman admired Sukarno and modeled his oratorical style after the Indonesian independence leader but he was no clone of Sukarno," added Syed Husin.
According to autobiographical sketches left behind by Boestaman, who was a journalist like many Malay left-wingers in the 1940s and 1950s, he was born Abdullah Thani Raja Kechil in Behrang in 1920 and assumed the nom de guerre ‘Boestaman' out of admiration for Indian independence fighter Subhas Chandra Bose.
Boestaman was transfixed watching the charismatic Indian freedom fighter at a public rally in Ipoh in 1943 when Bose, who sought Japanese help to fight the British, was on a tour of Malaya to whip local support for ‘Hind Swaraj' (Indian independence).
This is ironic as Professor Emeritus Khoo is often at pains trying to dispel popular misconceptions about historical personages and events and generally laments the lack of seriousness with which the subject is treated in the academic and public spheres.The former president of Parti Rakyat Malaysia who led it to merge with Parti Keadilan Nasional to become Parti Keadilan Rakyat in 2002, Syed Husin disputed several points of left-wing history that Prof Khoo had raised in an interview with Malaysiakini.
"It's not my intention to engage in polemics with him," said Syed Husin, 75, who in his youth in the 1950s was immersed in left-wing politics and befriended several of its leading lights.
"The points raised by Prof Khoo are not of small significance and so I feel compelled to set them right," added the former Universiti Malaya professor.
Boestaman not a Sukarno clone
Some details that Prof Khoo had shed on Ahmad Boestaman, a paladin of the left-wing movement from just before the Second World War to the early part of Malayan independence, were "way off the mark", according to Syed Husin.
"Firstly, Boestaman was not from Indonesia, as Prof Khoo contends, but was born in Behrang in Perak and though he was of Minangkabau stock, he was Malayan more than anything else," said Syed Husin."Boestaman admired Sukarno and modeled his oratorical style after the Indonesian independence leader but he was no clone of Sukarno," added Syed Husin.
According to autobiographical sketches left behind by Boestaman, who was a journalist like many Malay left-wingers in the 1940s and 1950s, he was born Abdullah Thani Raja Kechil in Behrang in 1920 and assumed the nom de guerre ‘Boestaman' out of admiration for Indian independence fighter Subhas Chandra Bose.
Boestaman was transfixed watching the charismatic Indian freedom fighter at a public rally in Ipoh in 1943 when Bose, who sought Japanese help to fight the British, was on a tour of Malaya to whip local support for ‘Hind Swaraj' (Indian independence).
The meaning of marhaenism
Syed Husin said another point that Prof Khoo got wrong was the name of the political party that Boestaman initiated in the aftermath of the war to agitate for independence.
He said the party was Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM), which was formed on Oct 17, 1945, and not Partai Kebangsaan Melayu Merdeka, as Prof Khoo suggested.
Syed Husin said even if the first word was ‘partai' rather than ‘parti', the difference is not indicative of anything significant about the leanings of those employing it because the root word comes from the English ‘party'.
"Employing the word ‘partai' would not significantly indicate your leanings are Indonesian any more than using ‘parti' would suggest that you are English favouring," argued the senator.
Yet another aspect of the left-wing movement that Syed Husin's said Prof Khoo got wrong was Boestaman's use of the term ‘marhaen' which was popularised by Sukarno.
"Sukarno started using the term after he met a Javanese landless peasant called Marhaen who impressed him with his innate dignity and national consciousness," explained Syed Husin.
"After that encounter, Sukarno would say that the political movement he leads would have to be good for the likes of people like Marhaen.
"Mahaenism then became a term for the landless peasantry and their claim to a place under the Indonesian sun," he said.
'Khoo badly misses the point'
Syed Husin said that Prof Khoo's equation of the marhaen with the proletariat of European communist ideology is a step too far because the former desires the dignity of labour and justice whereas the latter is viewed as the base for a vanguard that would bring a revolution.
"Boestaman was not a communist; he was a socialist and a fighter against all forms of colonialism," claimed Syed Husin.
He said Prof Khoo badly misses the point of the struggle of Boestaman and Malay left-wingers of his ilk when he claims that they were fighting to gain independence from the British in order to merge with Indonesia.
"They did subscribe to the concept of ‘Melayu Raya' which saw the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia as one people and one nation, but that was only in the context of wanting the liberation of similar peoples from the colonial yoke.
"It was like Egypt and Syria uniting at one time as one nation of Arabic people to fight international imperialism," said Syed Husin, as perspective.
"Boestaman and his types in the left-wing movement were nationalists first and socialists second, but not communist," asserted Syed Husin.
He said the party was Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM), which was formed on Oct 17, 1945, and not Partai Kebangsaan Melayu Merdeka, as Prof Khoo suggested.
Syed Husin said even if the first word was ‘partai' rather than ‘parti', the difference is not indicative of anything significant about the leanings of those employing it because the root word comes from the English ‘party'.
"Employing the word ‘partai' would not significantly indicate your leanings are Indonesian any more than using ‘parti' would suggest that you are English favouring," argued the senator.
Yet another aspect of the left-wing movement that Syed Husin's said Prof Khoo got wrong was Boestaman's use of the term ‘marhaen' which was popularised by Sukarno.
"Sukarno started using the term after he met a Javanese landless peasant called Marhaen who impressed him with his innate dignity and national consciousness," explained Syed Husin.
"After that encounter, Sukarno would say that the political movement he leads would have to be good for the likes of people like Marhaen.
"Mahaenism then became a term for the landless peasantry and their claim to a place under the Indonesian sun," he said.
'Khoo badly misses the point'
Syed Husin said that Prof Khoo's equation of the marhaen with the proletariat of European communist ideology is a step too far because the former desires the dignity of labour and justice whereas the latter is viewed as the base for a vanguard that would bring a revolution.
"Boestaman was not a communist; he was a socialist and a fighter against all forms of colonialism," claimed Syed Husin.
He said Prof Khoo badly misses the point of the struggle of Boestaman and Malay left-wingers of his ilk when he claims that they were fighting to gain independence from the British in order to merge with Indonesia.
"They did subscribe to the concept of ‘Melayu Raya' which saw the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia as one people and one nation, but that was only in the context of wanting the liberation of similar peoples from the colonial yoke.
"It was like Egypt and Syria uniting at one time as one nation of Arabic people to fight international imperialism," said Syed Husin, as perspective.
"Boestaman and his types in the left-wing movement were nationalists first and socialists second, but not communist," asserted Syed Husin.
KKK's delirious lately.
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