The former Selangor menteri besar gives his version on who were the real heroes of the storming of the Bukit Kepong police station in 1950.
PETALING JAYA: All of a sudden experts on the Bukit Kepong incident are coming out of the woodwork. The latest being Mohd Khir Toyo, a dentist, who now fancies himself as an historian.
The former Selangor menteri besar’s take is that if the independence heroes had sided the communists, then PAS would not exist.
Khir, writing in his blog, was taking a swipe at the alleged statement by PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu that the communists played a big part in freeing Malaysia from the British.
“If independence heroes sided the communists, PAS would not exist because the communist system would not allow any parties to be formed,” wrote Khir in his blog .
Utusan Malaysia reported last week that Mohamad Sabu was alleged to have said that the communists who attacked Bukit Kepong police station in Feb 23,1950, were the true independence heroes.
Sabu also alleged that Umno founder Onn Jaafar and Malaya’s first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman were officers of the British colonial government and cannot be considered as Malay nationalists.
“If the communists had taken over, then Islam would not be the official religion of the federation and the special position of the Malays and the Malay rulers would cease to exist,” said Khir who is also Sungai Besar state assemblyman.
Khir claimed that the communists were actually tools of the British and cannot be considered as independence heroes.
“The Malayan Communist Party (MCP) was actually a tool of the British during the Japanese occupation.
“The Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) was formed to protect the Chinese in Malaya who fared the worst as victims of Japanese brutality,” said Khir .
Khir added that MCP cooperated with the British after the Japanese were defeated but the British did not recognise the communist ideology and chose to negotiate with the Malay sultanates and Malay nationalists to form the Malayan Union.
Khir says that the police force formed in 1948 was responsible to maintain peace and security of the British colonial government.
On the Mat Sabu’s insistence that Mat Indera was an independence hero, Khir said that Mat Indera was not an independence hero because he was a communist and only wanted to form a communist government.
“It is not based on a struggle for independence,” Khir said
