Acrimony against PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu’s Bukit Kepong statement has again been stoked, this time in a centrespread advertisement in Utusan Malaysia ’s weekend edition, apparently from angry police and army veterans.

utusan ad hitting out at mat sabu “Uphold the truth: Malaysia’s heroes will not be forgotten!” blares the full colour two-page centrespread in Mingguan Malaysia , made out like a notice board full of historic photos courtesy of the National Archives, and two letters from police and armed forces veterans respectively.

The first, from police veterans, reads, “We comrades comprising former officers and personnel of the Malaysian Police Force who are loyal to the king and country and who are peace loving feel most angry and disappointed with the irresponsible statement by PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, that insults the sacrifice by the police during the bloody Bukit Kepong incident on Feb 23, 1950, while praising the communist terrorists as the heroes.”

It then machine guns a barrage of adjectives on Mohammad Sabu’s statement from “shallow, inhumane, humiliating, insulting, an insult, degrading, undignifying” and so on, in its treatment of policemen who have “sacrificed or been wounded while defending the sovereignty of the country and the force”.

The undersigned are the presidents of the Persatuan Bekas Polis Malaysia Shafei Bakri, Persatuan Pesara Pegawai Kanan Police Mohamad Jamil Mohamad Hassan and Persatuan VAT69 Ishak Yahaya.

mat indera The other statement by members of the Malaysian Armed Forces goes in the same fashion, and condemns the PAS deputy chief “vehemently” for recognising Mat Indera ( left ), allegedly the “head of the communist terrorists who attacked the Bukit Kepong Police Station” on that historic day, as a fighter for independence.

“His statement is an insult to the soldiers and their families who had perished while fighting the communists and poses as a threat to the country’s sovereignly of country, religion and national unity,” says the group of 15 heads of various armed forces veterans’ associations.

It is unclear from the centrespread who placed and funded the advertisement.

Charged over an opinion

On Aug 27, Utusan published several reports alleging that the PAS deputy, better known as Mat Sabu, had praised the attackers in the Bukit Kepong incident that had left 26 people dead.

NONE The PAS deputy ( photo, second from left ) has since claimed that Utusan had grossly distorted his words and has filed a defamation suit against the Umno-owned daily.

On Sept 21 the government charged Mat Sabu under Section 505 of the Penal Code with making a statement liable to lead to public mischief, requiring a bail of RM15,000.

Forty-five civil society organisations slammed the charge , saying it contradicted Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s “pledge to promote openness and democracy” made on the eve of Malaysia Day, and that the move was “politically motivated”.