Better late or justice denied?

Today, many of you live in what you may consider a very peaceful country. But it was not always as peaceful as it is today. And it is only peaceful because many people gave their lives to make it peaceful. But do you remember these people? Do you even know who they are? Have you ever thought of denying yourself a packet of cigarettes or a glass of beer or a teh tarik and roti canai and instead donate that money to a fund to help veterans and/or widows/orphans of veterans who made Malaysia into the peaceful country that it is today?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

All ex-special cops to get aid by June

(Bernama) - A special financial aid of RM3,000 each for 72,000 ex-special constables who served during the Emergency is expected to be distributed latest by end of June.

Home Ministry's Procurement Division secretary Datuk Wan Ali Besar said, to date, 55,000 had received the aid through the state police contingent headquarters since March 25. He said the division had encountered problems, as some retirees had relocated or their addresses were inaccurate.

"To ensure the smooth distribution of the aid, we are using the services of senior officers from the police or Home Ministry to directly hand the aid to the recipients."

He said this after handing cheques for the aid to Ismail Idris, 82, from Kampung Tok Motong and the widow of an ex-constable Umi Khelthom Abdul Rashid, 61, from Kampung Lak Lok, at their respective homes.

According to Wan Ali, Selangor had the most recipients, followed by Johor, Sabah and Sarawak, involving those aged between 75 and 90.

In another development, Wan Ali also promised to forward the grouses of state ex-policemen associations over the delay in payment of funeral expenses of RM1,000 each to 3,500 applicants.

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THE MULTI-ETHNIC MALAYAN HOME GUARDS 

The Malayan Emergency was from 1948 to 1960. It started two years before I was born and ended when I was ten years old. How many of you reading this article was born AFTER the Emergency ended?

In total, 250,000 Home Guards (today what we probably know as RELA), 40,000 Commonwealth troops, 24,000 Federation Police, and 37,000 Special Constables were involved in this ‘war’ against 8,000 Communist Terrorists (CTs).

By the time the Emergency officially ended in 1960, the CTs were down to less than 2,000. That was also the same year that the government introduced the infamous and draconian Internal Security Act (ISA).

In fact, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s father, the then Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, was the person who introduced that bill in Parliament and promised the nation that the ISA would only be used to combat the Communist insurgency and for no other purposes.

And the government broke that promise amongst scores of other promises they broke.

I wrote earlier that the British defeated Communism by winning the battle of the hearts and minds of the people. Nevertheless, while Malayans at large may not have supported Communism or joined the ranks of the CTs, they still needed the use of force to keep the CTs in the jungles and not allow them to rampage in the towns.

In all, about 2,000 uniformed personnel died and another 2,000 were wounded. There were also about 2,500 civilian casualties with about 800 missing. On the other side, almost 7,000 CTs died, about 1,300 were wounded, 1,300 were captured and 2,700 surrendered.

It was certainly a mismatched contest. I remember an old school friend of mine who was in the army telling me that they needed 100 soldiers for every CT in the jungle. Hence it made sense that 350,000 uniformed personnel had to be deployed against only 8,000 CTs. Even that was not enough and most times the CTs managed to run rings around the uniformed personnel. 

52 years after the end of the Emergency, the government suddenly remembers all those people who had served, suffered and sacrificed for the sake of the nation and to keep Malayans safe. 52 years!

What took them so long? Is it because the next general election will soon be upon us and because this is going to be one of the toughest general elections that Umno is ever going to face and because they need to pull every rabbit out of the hat to win this general election?

How would you classify this stunt? Is it “better late than never” or “justice delayed is justice denied”?

This reminds me of the story of the genie in the bottle, which goes as follows:

One day, a fisherman found a bottle, which Solomon had imprisoned a genie in. When he opened the bottle the genie was released and it wanted to kill the fisherman. The fisherman was perplexed. He had released the genie and yet the genie wanted to kill him rather than reward him.

The genie then explained that initially it had sworn to reward anyone who released it. However, after a long time, no one came to release him. Eventually, the genie got so angry that it swore it would kill whoever released it.

The bottom line is: the fisherman took so damn long to release the genie that it no longer wanted to reward whoever released it but just kill that cursed person.

52 years after the end of the Emergency, the government has suddenly remembered all those people who sacrificed and died for the nation. And, of course, the government expects to be rewarded for this: with votes in the coming general election. Do you think the genie is going to reward you or kill you for taking so damn long about it?

We must remember that Malayans were not the only ones who died for our country. During the Second World War, the Emergency, and the Konfrontasi that followed, many foreigners also died for our country, mainly Commonwealth troops as well as Ghurkhas. And how have we remembered them? Well, let me tell you how we have remembered them.

One day, back in the early 2000s, I went to the Sungai Buloh mosque for my Friday prayers. It happened to be around Warriors Day. The imam, in his government-prepared sermon (Kutbah), told the congregation that Warriors Day is the day to remember all those Muslims who had died in the defence of Islam.

I was flabbergasted. Warriors Day is a day to remember all those Muslims who had died in the defence of Islam? What a load of bullshit! World War Two, the Emergency, the Konfrontasi, etc., had nothing to do with a war in the defence of Islam. Furthermore, more non-Muslims than Muslims died in the various armed conflicts. And many of these non-Muslims were not even Malayan citizens but foreigners.

You mean no Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Dayaks, Kadazans, Senois, Sikhs, etc., also died? What about the Welsh, Irish, Scots, English, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Nepalese, etc? None of these were Muslims and they too died. So how can this be about Muslims dying in a war in defence of Islam? 

 

 

THE COMMONWEALTH TROOPS SERVING IN THE MALAYAN EMERGENCY 

I was so disgusted I stood up and showed the imam a hand gesture, which I am sure your imagination can tell you what it was. I then walked out of the mosque and went home. My wife was surprised to see me home so early and when she asked me why I replied: today I am going to pray at home. From that day on I refused to ever again pray in the Sungai Buloh mosque.

Yes, that was my ‘civil disobedience’. I boycotted the mosque as a mark of protest against the lies that are being fed to the congregation. I am sure 99% of the Sungai Buloh congregation are not students of history and would not know any better. Hence they would believe what the imam said. After all, would an imam lie in front of God during Friday prayers?

Those of you from Sungai Buloh who happen to be reading this could probably testify that you have not seen my face in the Sungai Buloh mosque for at least the last ten years or so (granted the last three years was because I no longer live in Sungai Buloh but in Manchester).

Today, many of you live in what you may consider a very peaceful country. But it was not always as peaceful as it is today. And it is only peaceful because many people gave their lives to make it peaceful. But do you remember these people? Do you even know who they are? Have you ever thought of denying yourself a packet of cigarettes or a glass of beer or a teh tarik and roti canai and instead donate that money to a fund to help veterans and/or widows/orphans of veterans who made Malaysia into the peaceful country that it is today?

The tragedy is not in the sacrifices and deaths of these warriors. The tragedy is in us not remembering and acknowledging their sacrifices and deaths. I may have been viewed as mad to show the imam a hand gesture and walk out of the Sungai Buloh mosque, never to step foot in that mosque again. But I strongly felt that an injustice had been done to those who had laid down their lives for our country and I was not about to allow that injustice to pass unpunished.

And now we are perpetuating this injustice by ‘remembering’ the sacrifices and deaths of these people 52 years later and using this as an election gimmick.

Just like in the story of the genie in the bottle, I hope those recipients of the government’s ‘generosity’ will punish the government in the next general election by saying: do you think I am so cheap that you can buy my sacrifices with a mere RM3,000 fifty-two years too late?