It's a subject many of us hate. History. There is much reading and research; there are no right or wrong answers. Interestingly, part of the treatment for those with sakit jiwa is ‘role play'.

But mixing history with those suffering from sakit jiwa is a lethal combination.

Last Friday, the psychiatric hospital nearby, allowed some loonies the afternoon off. Five of them took to the stage at the MBI auditorium in Ipoh and gave us their insight into Malayan history.

I'm not sure which is worse: Being in the lion's den of a crowd which appeared to be 97 percent pro-Umno or being smacked in the face when we were told that the British were never our colonial masters.

Perhaps Friday, Sept 9, was a day the loonies escaped.

All those years of mugging up on dates and names have been a waste. How dare the schools tell us that the Brits colonised us? If the panel had blamed the Christian missionary teachers at the convent for teaching us hogwash, few in the audience would have objected.

The spin and gloss on history which the panel let sink into the audience was breathtaking. If this panel is to be believed, their supposition is that when the rulers of Tanah Melayu invited the Brits over and said, "Make yourselves at home", the rulers meant it, literally.

The wealth generated from rubber and tin, which the Brits shipped back to Blighty, to fund the Empire, was perhaps nothing more than generosity of our Malay rulers; a reward to the Brits, for accepting the invitation to be the Sultan's ‘advisers'.

Thus, I was wrong to write the vitriolic letters in the past, to protest about the name change of our roads and towns. Teluk Anson, Jalan Mountbatten, Port Swettenham, Brewster Road, being but a few. The people who wanted to erase all trace of the penjajah were misinformed. The Brits were penasihat and pekerja , not penjajah .

khoo kay kim anti auku gma 141006 pointing At the Merdeka forum, organised by the Institut Darul Ridzuan (IDR), the topic for discussion was Peristiwa Bukit Kepong: Siapa Wira sebenar?

The forum was held at the Auditorium Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh (MBI) in Ipoh and the four speakers were former IGP Hanif Omar, historian Prof Khoo Kay Kim ( right ), former Perak police chief Yuen Yuet Leng and Universiti Teknologi Mara Dean of Administrative Science and Policy Studies Prof Ramlah Adam.

The event seemed to be well subscribed by civil servants, possibly because many would have taken the opportunity to skive-off early after Friday prayers and not return to the office.

The talk may have been topical, but the number of people who left the auditorium, as soon as the last speaker finished, was proof that most of the audience were not there because of their interest in the topic. There was also a large presence of police personnel and army veterans.

Pro-Umno

It was evident this event was pro-Umno. There was a board which displayed newspaper cuttings, only from the mainstream media, about Mat Sabu's speech.

During this forum, drinks and muffins were served to the people in the spill-over room, people had conversations on their handphones and groups of people chatted away throughout the lecture.

NONE If IDR is supposed to be the think-tank for Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir ( right ), then his organisation has failed. Why did IDR not engage one or two speakers with an opposing viewpoint for a balanced argument?

When Hanif got up to speak, he appeared to be incoherent. I looked around for the medic thinking he was ill. Others wondered if he had not prepared his speech or had forgotten his reading glasses.

Hanif must have seen, at first hand, the evil to which the communists once subjected ordinary folk, but he is not the only person to lose colleagues, friends or family members.

Hanif's incoherence was apparently because he was overcome by emotion. To a casual observer it looked like a clumsy and unprofessional attempt to play on the sentiments of the Malay crowd. Perhaps he was tired and emotional after a long luncheon.

The second speaker, Prof Khoo, accused the audience of having a poor grasp of history and criticised the education system of this country.

One wonders why Khoo, the eminent historian, did not use his influence on the Education Minister, rather than berate us for our lack of historical knowledge.

Who are we to dictate educational policies? It was irresponsible of Khoo to suggest it was our fault.

Then again, perhaps he is right. The Umno ministers will never admit to any of their many faults; it is always the rakyat who is at fault and who must bear the consequences of ministerial blunders.

Throughout his talk, Khoo appeared as if he had better things to do on a Friday afternoon. His lasting comment, which has drawn flak, was to say that we were never colonised.

'Not a normal Chinaman'

The third speaker, Yuen, delivered his speech in English and told us that he had supported the NEP wholeheartedly since its inception. He alluded to the rising resentment within the other races, made reference to the fact that Chinese and Indian problems had to be addressed and touched briefly on "honest politics".

Despite claiming that he did not belong to any political party, Yuen appears to be the embodiment of Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's 1Malaysia. Yuen said: "I am not a normal Chinaman. Within this Chinese body, one part is Melayu, the other is Indian."

The lasting impression of the last speaker Prof Ramlah was that she talked too fast, covered too many topics and told us that if we wanted to verify facts, then we had to read books by certain academicians, including hers.

Perhaps she would do or say anything to prop-up flagging book sales. Perhaps she does not realise that the average Malaysian only reads 1.5 books a year. Her valid arguments were wasted on us, and should have been used to influence the Education Ministry to focus on better education in our schools.

Lastly, the moderator was a disappointment and the audience was hostile to those who opposed Umno's views, in the Q&A session.

NONE The speeches were designed to whip up public sentiment against Mat Sabu ( left ) and make Umno appear to be the saviour of Malaysia. The forum did not attempt to be apolitical or impartial. The moderator did not take a neutral stance and the four high-profile speakers let the public and themselves down.

The object of this exercise was purely political; to denigrate Mat Sabu.

It must indicate the seriousness with which Umno perceives the threat of the Opposition.

The shame is that several intelligent people, including and especially the Malays, have allowed Umno to manipulate their thinking.

The true hero in the current mêlée is Mat Sabu, for daring to confront difficult issues head-on.

One hopes that he will be successful in liberating the minds of ordinary Malaysians, allowing them to adopt reason and figure things for themselves, without the meddling and brainwashing by Umno.

The people must see through Umno's charade and re-focus on the electoral frauds that Umno and the EC are perpetrating.

 

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In ‘real-speak’, this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.