A Precious Writing by Abang Ghaf on the Incident of Bukit Kepong

Below is the writing by Abang Ghaf commenting on my post titled Dr Airil

Pertahan Bukit Kepong. It is too precious to be left at the bottom of the post
unread. So I reproduce the writing herein so that we can all read it.


My teenage children come to realize the soul of our forefathers and what it
means to be Islam and Malay who love our Tanah Melayu then and Malaysia .

History advises us a lot of things , it materializes with various interpretation as
one sees it . Right or wrong is perceived immaterial to the Mat Sabu . What
matter to him is to utterly convince . It be a significant x-factor to Mat Sabu
who is at the centre stage of our political arena and who have large numbers
of political congregation .

Like you have said some of our young people scrummed to his anecdote
vigorously . Yet the spirit of the Malay souls in defending the post is totally
ignored with insensitivity .

Mat Sabu is in his righteous jot to interpret how he sees it . Being a number
two man in Pas , his assimilation of the Bukit Kepong event was at his
constructed interpretative disposal . But the whole idea is political without
realizing that it has deprived the soul of our forefathers , just to pursue a
course of minds for his ignorant congregation . It is his political and sordid
morality of constraint to create doubt to the Malay souls .

Mat Indera was a Malay Nationalist and a maverick who associated with the
Communists . The Communist had a grand agenda then . Doubt if Mat Indra
knew that . There were no record that he was the field commander of the
attack . For that matter , it was also unknown what position he held in the
defunct Communist Party of Malaya . He may not be a communist . Certainly ,
his animosity toward colonialism was unbearable . Most of our forefathers of
all status were , then .

No doubt , Mat Indera was a man of Islamic integrity , staunched Malay
Nationalist and so called a freedom fighter who denounced British colonialism
. He was a valiant Nationalist of an armed foot-soldier who fought together
with the Communist . It was unfortunate for him because the masses were not
with him then to take up armed against the British except the Communists .
This goes to the leaders of the Malay National Party ( MNP) . They , the
Malay Nationalists joined in with the Communists also .

Whether Mat Indra is a hero or not is irrelevant . The members of the Malay
Nationalist Party ( MNP ) and United Malay National Organization ( UMNO ) ,
they were all heroes because they wanted Tanah Melayu to be independent
from the British led by their respective leaders . The only different was their
means to get independence , the hard way by armed struggle of bloodshed or
by Umno means of negotiation in convention .

Our forefathers had the choice and the choice was exceptionally made and
justified by the democratic journey . Politics is not everything . The integrity of
Islam and Malay are somethings .

Abang Pi's View: Another precious writing on Bukit Kepong

Alhamdullillah,many more highly intellectual comments/writings are flowing
into this blog by the hours and days only to prove that there are still beautiful
minds within our society. Another instance is the following writing by AbangPi,
which like Abang Ghaf's, is too precious to be kept at the bottom of any posts.

Assalamualaikum Dr, I would like to comment on abang Ghaf's comment-
became-article above. I did agree with everything else except for a few jots
of his statements namely: 1. this matter that Mat Sabu carelessly brought
up into our political arena was not an anecdote. The Bukit Kepong tragedy on
Feb 23, 1950 was very meaningful to most of Malaysian. It symbolised the
CPM's intention to Malaya, the price that were paid by our security personnel
and the still alive spirit of selfless sacrifice and gallantry of the Malay people
and by saying that I didnt mean to refer to the Malay communists. How
could we say that this issue was an anecdote when it meant so much to the
people involved, the survived policemen, the family, the community and the
country. I would like to speculate now that this was among the most significant
event in the fight against communism along with Sungai Semur tragedy, etc. I
wasnt there for the firsthand experience of our fathers and grandfathers in the
struggle for I am just coming to 40 but I am proud of their sacrifice, enabling
us to have our way of life today. Please do not hurt the old gentlemen and
ladies who may had given up the pleasure of life joining the security force of
Malaysia by belittling their previous effort to make sure that we are who we
are today. Please do not see this issue as another mediocre political issue. I
think that is why our young people scrummed vigorously to this. 2. Mat
Indera should have known the intention (i.e. grand agenda) of his communist
comrades with years of his life spent with them. He was also constantly
educated by commissars. He had seen their performance and vigour in the
Bukit Kepong attack. However for the benefit of doubt we should also allow
your statement. Assume that he was blinded by the desire for Malaya
independence to quite see the communists grand agenda. 3. He was the
commander of the attack, according to his younger brother, Johan Shah. That
was the reason of his heads price was 75,000 after the tragedy. That must be
a hefty sum of money. How can it be, the company commander was not one
of them? It was quite preposterous to declare that Mat Indera was indeed a
non communist, but again this one is also controversial. 4. It was fortunate
that the majority of Malayas population were not with him for otherwise the
land will be called the Peoples Democratic Republic of Malaya without the
democracy. 5. The hard way for independence was not an alien idea. We
have seen the neighbour- Indonesia was successful with their revolution, in
just 4 years of struggle. I must ask you, how can we endorse a force such as
the MPABA that was showing the unnatural appetite for atrocity, evidenced by
the Bukit Kepong massacre, to represent our revolutionary side? The Badan
Keamanan Rakjat, Tentara Nasional Indonesias former name faces the same
armed struggle as the MCP was, without a single allegation of misconduct,
much less an atrocity, all the while there were many military misconduct was
accused of the KNIL. They still managed to beat the Dutch. My point is that if
the CPM claimed to fight for the independence of Malaya, there should not be
any Bukit Kepong tragedy because they must regard the Bukit Kepong
civilians (at least) as their citizens, to be protected, not to killed or thrown into
the burning police station.

6. I wish Mat Indera will not be declared a hero due to his deed. In communist
army, the leader is more powerful than in conventional army, because he had
the power to deliver strict disciplinary action to his subordinate. The comrade
leader can even execute an insubordinating member. I believe that if he was
the leader of the attack, he should be able to prevent any wrongdoings by the
guerrillas. The communist is also unique due to another post in the army- the
commissars. Mat Indera may escape the blame for the atrocity if the order
came from the commissar, Goh Peng Tung who may have more power than
he had. 7. the choices were made and their impacts were felt by everyone. It
went into the history books as facts. perhaps the individuals involved, villains
and heroes were all fiercely patriotic and were doing what they think was best
for their beloved nation, we may never know. 8. The first and foremost in our
life is Islam. Next came Malaysia, the Malay race, the family, etc. I was very
grateful that Mat Indera and communist forefathers failed 60 years ago,
otherwise we may not be as free as today. Alhamdulillah. I apologised to
Abang Ghaf if he didnt concur to the above. Thank you, Dr. Airil.