The country's top police officer today slammed PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu ( below ) for allegedly twisting the facts in claiming that communist insurgent Mat Indera was the real hero of the Bukit Kepong attack in 1950.

pengukir nama johor mat sabu pas pc 060911 Inspector general of police Ismail Omar stressed that it was the communists who forced the government to declare two emergency periods, and blamed the communists for killing thousands of police officers and civilians during the two bloody periods in Malaysia's history.

"Many people forget that it is due to the communists that our country had two emergencies, the first from 1948 to 1960 and the second from 1961 to 1989, when the communists put down their arms and surrendered," he said at a press conference in Bukit Aman.

Citing figures on police and civilian casualties during the emergency periods, Ismail pointed out that the bulk of fatalities happened during the first emergency when a total of 1,346 police officers and 2,473 civilians were killed.

The figures dramatically went down during the second emergency, with 98 police officers and 85 civilians killed during conflicts with communists.

Ismail added that there were also a total of 1,601 police officers and 1,385 civilians wounded during the first emergency, while 282 police officers and 105 civilians were wounded during the second emergency.

"We are not just referring to Bukit Kepong... that is only one of the incidents that threatened the country. You must remember that the police force was formed in 1807. We are over 200 years old now.

"Our role has not changed, we protect society and lay down our lives for the country. It (communist movement) was an insurgency, to overthrow the system that has already been put in place in our country," he said.

mat indera 060911 Mat Sabu, as Mohamad is popularly known, has come under heavy fire for allegedly saying in a speech that insurgent Mat Indera ( right ), who lead the attack on the Bukit Kepong police station in 1950, was the real hero in the incident and not the police who were on the British payroll.

The issue was first highlighted by Umno-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia , and has since raised the ire of many former servicemen, with some going to the extent of demanding that Mat Sabu's citizenship be revoked .

Ismail noted that there have already been several hundred reports filed against  over his alleged statement, and the police are currently investigating it under Section 505 of the Penal Code for causing public unrest.

"We would like to know what was his motive, but we will let you all evaluate it (Mat Sabu's statement) for yourselves," he said.

Failure of Ops Sikap due to bad behaviour

Earlier in the press conference, Ismail said an analysis of the recently concluded Ops Sikap 24 - which manages and monitors traffic during mass exoduses related to public holidays - showed that human factors were the overriding reason for the increase in traffic fatalities this time around.

He pointed out that a total of 19,606 accidents happened between Aug 23 and Sept 6 this year during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holiday season, a 16.6 percent hike from 16,817 cases the previous year.

The number of fatalities recorded stood at 289 cases, up by 41 cases or 16.5 percent compared to 248 deaths in 2010.

"The reasons are more back to basic fundamentals, in that it is due to human factors and not mechanical or environmental factors.

"We must accept the fact that whatever it is you do, no matter what clothes you wear, if your face is tak elok, tak elok lah . It's the same here, if the attitude is bad, then it's bad."

Ismail said they had focussed more on advocacy this time around, and stressed that education is the only long term solution to the issue of poor driving habits among Malaysians.

"It is as if when we get on the roads, we don't know how to value our lives... we don't want future Malaysians to be worse than what we are today, on the roads at least," he said.

 

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