'Umno looks like the biggest traitor - it sold out all the legitimate freedom fighters to the British, forcing Mat Indera into the jungle.'

Mat Indera not a CPM member, says brother

Tired: It is useless and pointless to debate this, for even until all the cows and other ruminants in the world come home, it will still be a hung jury.

For example, how on earth can Baharum Shah Indera possibly confirm that his brother was neither a communist nor a member of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), unless he has in his possession the CPM's membership list.

In short, let each individual decide what he or she wants to believe.

Tailek: Perhaps the historians should debate this issue and give the rakyat their views on why "almost all the pro-independence movements, except for Umno, were outlawed by the British colonial authorities".

Tkc: Regardless of whether Mat Indera was a communist or not, he inspired me. Here was a devout Muslim fighting the British with his multiracial and multireligious comrades to free our country from colonial rule.

I can now see why Mat Sabu talked about Mat Indera because both men seem similar, i.e. religious, rebellious and believe in freeing the rakyat from oppression. If Umno accuses Mat Sabu of being a communist, one day the similarities would be complete.

Dzulkefly Ahmad: This is a very hard fact to accept - the bloody assault on Bukit Kepong police station 60 years ago was launched by a religious Malay man who led about 200 communists, mainly Chinese, to kill 25 Malay police officers.

That is probably why this fact was omitted from history. The same goes for Bersih 2.0. A group of about 80 percent Malays was led by an ethnic Indian woman to call for reforms against the corrupted election system in Malaysia.

Solomon: Umno looks like the biggest traitor - it sold out all the legitimate freedom fighters to the British, forcing Mat Indera into the jungle.

The CPM and Mat Indera shared a common enemy. But that does not necessarily mean he was communist.

Pronto: Who fought the Japanese during the Japanese occupation? When the Japanese surrendered, the British were double quick to take over Malaya and force these fighters back into the jungle, branding them communists and using locals to fight them.

We were actually used by the colonial British to fight people like Mat Indera, Rashid Maidin and the rest who were the actual fighters for Merdeka.

FairMind: Whether Mat Indera is a communist or not, it doesn't count or matter. In Malaysia, it is Umno which decides who's communist and who's not.

When they decide some PSM members are communists, they are communists. When they decide Lim Kit Siang, Mat Sabu, Anwar Ibrahim are communists or Jewish sympathisers, they are communists or Jewish sympathisers.

When they say the British lapdogs are heroes and opposers to the British are the villains, then that's what they were. Umno gets to decide black is white and white is black in Malaysia because it writes the history books.

Anonymous_4054: It is indeed true to say that the Malay left was outlawed, isolated and persecuted during the Emergency.

Interestingly, some Islamic reform movements also appear to have received similar treatment by the colonial government, a practice that seems to some extent have been continued by Umno to the present day.

The implications of these movements should be studied, not only for the impact they had on the Emergency itself, but more importantly, for nation-building and national unity.

20121221Disaster: Mat Indera was, and still is, a hero. Together with his organisation, PKMM (Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya), he fought the British for the country's independence, willing to sacrifice his own life for the cause, whereas Umno leaders were wagging their tails at the British.

And Umno leaders now shamelessly claim that Malaya had obtained independence from the British without bloodshed whereas PKMM lost tons of blood and numerous lives in the fight against the British.

Geronimo: If this was true, then the CPM merely acted as a conduit for Mat Indera to carry out his subversive activities against the British colonists. Do you have a problem with that, Umno?

Mat Indera - villain or hero?

Ben-ghazi: Now the so-called Utusan Malaysia journalists will have to eat the proverbial humble pie as their spin has backfired badly.

They were adamant that Mat Indera was the villain in the Bukit Kepong incident, and the police who defended the colonialists were the 'heroes'.

It has now been revealed in no uncertain terms that even the Johor government had recognised Mat Indera as the freedom fighter in the BN state government's own publication, prefaced by the present Johor MB, no less.

The book was edited by former UM professor of media studies, Prof Abu Bakar Hamid. A relative of mine who works for Utusan Malaysia had even tried to defend his newspaper, claiming that the government during the Bukit Kepong incident was a Malay government.

Yes, a Malay government that flew the Union Jack and sang 'God Save the Queen'! Now I wonder what he thinks of his former professor at the UM.

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