2014-08-31 Why are we still quarreling? We are one people. We are 1 Malaysia.
By Lintang Bob Yong
Malaya got
its independent in 1957 and is now 57 years old. Let’s stop for a moment and
learn from history; lest we forget the sacrifices of our forefathers.
The Emergency declared in 1948 by the British Administration (BA) was to
combat the armed struggle by Chin Peng’s Malayan Communist Party (MCP). I was aware of the Malayan Emergency Period
during my school days. I was in Standard 3. Perhaps I was then not old enough to
understand the significance of the political unrest in Malaya after the
Japanese Forces surrendered in 1945.
What I cannot
forget was the hardship people had endured during the era of Emergency, staying
in new villages where freedom of movement was curtailed. People were forced to
move into new and hastily established villages with fenced-in barked wire. This
was an attempt to stop people from providing assistance to MCP which was
fighting the colonial masters for independence. Curfew was imposed from dust to
dawn (6.00 pm to 6.00 am) by BA. My father’s family, like many others had
experienced these sufferings of the curfew which lasted for a long five years
from 1950. The curfew was lifted in 1955 and I stayed on in Salak South New
Village until my marriage in 1968.
Click the
link below and watch these documentaries to learn more about our history.
Malaysians who are borne after the Emergency Period can get a good insight of
it.
The Undeclared War
(Malayan Emergency-1948-1960)
It is also
fair to listen to Chin Peng’s side of story. Click this link.
