The Malaysiakini article Malayan deaths in infamous railway unsung till today is about Umno conveniently forgetting the war dead consists of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Dayaks, Kadazans, Orang Asli and lain-lain .
The Sabahans and Sarawakians are more likely to honour their war dead than Umno. There are no majority ethnic Malay-Muslim votes to be won by Umno for reminding the Malays about the facts about the Japanese occupation.
Instead the votes would go towards the opposition Pakatan Rakyat alliance of PAS, DAP, and PKR. If you remind them that the Japanese killed tens of thousands of Malaysians during WWII, then the Malays in Umno and Perkasa might realise that everyone - Chinese, Malays, Indians, Dayaks, Kadazan, Orang Asli, and lain-lain - all fought and died for the same country called Malaysia.
For Umno, there are only votes to be won by demonising the non-Malays and non-Muslims but not Tojo's Japanese army who tortured and killed tens of thousands of brave Malaysians of all races.
This is the reason you will never see Ibrahim Ali and Dr Mahathir Mohamad doing a song and dance about the Malays who died building the Death Railway. I won't even talk about remembering the efforts and sacrifices of the non-Malays during WWII in fighting the Japanese Imperial Army because the Umno ultras and Perkasa fascists might find it too confusing for their tiny little minds
Nobody in Umno or Perkasa will ever ask about who died, who fought, who collaborated, who suffered and who sacrificed during the Second World War in Malaya as the truth will contradict Umno's grand narrative of Malayan history, Malay nationalism, social contract and Ketuanan Melayu .
Nobody remembers heroes like Sybil Karthigesu nowadays because her story is embarrassing to erstwhile collaborators in Umno-BN. Since it is the mass media brainwashing that propagates the divide-and-rule policies of Umno, and Umno's hold on political power, and the obscene riches of Umno's political elites, then you can hardly blame Umno elites for not turning on themselves and their ill-gotten gains by telling the truth
You can also forget about an accurate perspective on the role of British colonialism in Malaya because as hypocritical, cynical and racist as the British were, the fact is that Umno makes far worse colonials than the Brits ever did (ask any poor Malay east coast Malaysian, Chinese Malaysian, Indian Malaysian or East Malaysian).
In Umno's grand narrative, Malaysian history starts in 1946 with the formation of Umno and not before then. It concentrates on the fight against the Chinese communists and nothing is said about the cruelties and killings of the Japanese occupation army. It concentrates on the battle between the Malay armed forces and the Malaysian communist party.
Nothing is said by Umno about the role of the millions of ordinary Chinese Malaysians who supported the government fight against the communist campaign of terror without which the outcome would have been disastrous.
The real problem for Umno spin doctors and other professional liars is that sooner or later the younger generation of Malaysians on the Internet will find out for themselves the truth - that on the merciless battlefield of World War II, thousands of Malaysians of all races died fighting the Japanese Imperial Army.
Embarrassingly for Umno, a lot of them just happened to be Chinese Malayans, whom the Japanese hated, for being bogged down in an unwinnable war in Mainland China where Japanese losses mounted steadily in spite of terrible reprisals against a civilian population.
Let us honour our war dead by not being ignorant, by not being parochial and small-minded, and by not being misled into useless ethnic scapegoat-ing so beloved by the racists in Perkasa, Utusan, and Biro Tata Negara.
You can forget about Perkasa or Umno honouring the Malay or non-Malay war dead who built the Japanese Death Railways in WWII.
To do so might open the eyes of Umno supporters to the fact that the Malayan heroes of all races of World War II did not sacrifice their lives for ‘1-Apartheid-1Doomed 1-C4 Zimbabwe’ but for a better future for all Malaysians regardless of race or religion.
In the modern age, the new heroes to lead the way into the future must be the progressive Malays in PAS and PKR.
In such a way, it is the Zaid Ibrahims, the Khalid Samads, and the Nik Azizs who stand for truth, and justice who will lead Malaysia into the future. No one really fancies living in the Zimbabwe that Umno is leading us towards.
