Patriot urges Najib to correct the unscrupulous statement he made.
For the record, in the war against the communist insurgents, all ethnic groups in our country participated – Malays, Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, Orang Asli, Iban, Dayak, Kadazan and the Serani (Eurasians). [Also involved were British, Gurkha, Australian and New Zealand troops. – Aliran editor]
Even though the two periods – 1948-1960 and 1968-1989 – were officially classified as first and second emergencies due to insurance coverage issue, those were decades of a war.
At the recently held Gombak Umno annual general meeting, former Prime Minister Najib Razak was reported to have said that “the party (Umno) can resist the cruel PH government, just as it fought and defeated the communists during the decades-long insurgency”.
Najib’s statement was misleading. There is no historical record for Umno and the party members acting as a group who fought and defeated the communist insurgents during the two emergencies.
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His statement played down the pivotal role of the security forces, ie the police and the Malaysian Armed Forces [and troops from other nations] in defeating the communist threat that had taken countless lives and maimed numerous members of the security forces.
We are puzzled at how Najib wilfully manipulated facts and the history relating to the defeat of the communist insurgency in his quest to regain lost popularity among the Malays.
In the past there had been ultra-racial groups also trying to stir racial sentiments by saying only the Malays played a role in the war against the communist insurgents, while the Chinese and other ethnic groups played no part – and therefore these groups questioned the loyalties of the latter to the country. This is absolutely not true.
Members of the security forces who served throughout the period of the communist insurgency can easily vouch that they had never seen a single Umno member carrying a 30kg pack filled with rations and ammunition on their back and a rifle in hand, foraging in the jungles of Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Sarawak, risking stepping on booby traps, to seek out the communist insurgents. Neither have any of the party members fallen fighting the communist insurgents.
Patriot urges Najib to correct the unscrupulous statement he made.
Retired Brigadier General Dato Mohamed Arshad Raji is president of the National Patriots Association (Patriot).
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