The 25 police officers who defended the Bukit Kepong police station in 1950, Onn Jaafar and Tunku Abdul Rahman were true nationalists, said DAP chairman Karpal Singh.

NONE The member of parliament for Bukit Gelugor said this fact should not be disputed, and must be accepted as historically documented that the communist terrorist attack on the police station was repelled by the policemen and their family members who successfully defended the station.

"They must be given due credit by all quarters, for their courage and sacrifice. It is wrong to say that they were British officers as allegedly described by (PAS deputy president) Mohamad (Sabu).

"They were true nationalists," said Karpal in a statement here today.

Sabu's remarks 'ill-advised'

NONE Mohamad Sabu was alleged to have said during a ceramah in Tasik Gelugor, Penang recently that the communist terrorists who attacked and killed 25 policemen and their families in the Bukit Kepong tragedy were the real heroes because they were fighting against the British.

Karpal said the alleged remarks that the communist terrorists who attacked the police station were the country's true heroes and that Onn Jaafar and Tunku Abdul Rahman did not deserve to be called independence fighters because they were officers of the British administration were ill-advised.

He said it was wrong to say that Onn and Tuanku Abdul Rahman were British officers as they were the country's icons in the fight for independence and were true nationalists.

- Bernama