Patriot unhappy with Ummah's 'ignorance' about historical role of non-Malays

15 Jan 2018 / 07:59 H.

PETALING JAYA: Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan has expressed its dissatisfaction with Ummah president Ismail Mina Ahmad and said that he does not present himself as a person who is well-versed in current affairs and history.
Patriot president, Brig-Gen (rtd) Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji, said a cleric and an elderly person is usually one with wisdom, promoting love, peace, understanding, and compassion, but not one who promotes hatred.
He said Patriot was very disappointed with those who had sponsored Ummah for their forum, accusing it of being peppered with hate-filled speeches and distorted historical facts.
"Ignorance breeds contempt if allowed to remain unchecked. Patriot has to repeat that since the pre-independence years – through the first and second Emergencies, from the early years of the Home Guard, Templer's Super 12, the Federation Regiment, the Congo peacekeeping mission, the Confrontation, the urban communist terrorism, jungle warfare in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak – the non-Malay officers and men, which included Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, Orang Asli, Ibans, Dayaks, and Kadazans had fought gallantly alongside their Malay brothers-in-arms," he said in a statement.
Ismail had told the covention yesterday that only the Malay community had resisted British colonialists and Japanese occupiers, erasing the contributions of other ethnicities.
Ismail, the chairman of the Ummah umbrella group for Muslim organisations, also asserted that only the Malays had battled the communists, which he claimed made the community a target of the predominantly-Chinese insurgency that lasted for 40 years.
Mohamed Arshad pointed out that in the Air Force, numerous non-Malay pilots flew in dangerous supply and evacuation missions, and were on the receiving end of enemy fire.
"The success of the security forces against the Communist Party of Malaya insurgents and urban terrorists was to a large extent attributed to the many dangerous and highly classified covert operations of the police Special Branch and military intelligence, many members of whom were of Chinese ethnicity.
"The CPM was not totally ethnic Chinese. The 10th Regiment of the CPM was predominantly ethnic Malays, whose leaders included Abdullah CD, Rashid Mydin, and Samsiah Fakeh," he said.
He added that distorting history to suit one's alleged political purpose and instilling hatred towards non-Malays is totally irresponsible.
Mohamed Arshad urged the defence and home affairs ministers to set the record straight regarding the different ethnic groups' participation in serving the nation, combating enemies and the communist insurgents.
MCA Publicity and Religious Harmony Bureau chairman Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker said MCA supports Patriot's defence of all Malaysians who were either seriously injured or tortured to death in their defence of Malaya during the Japanese occupation and Communist insurgency.
"Papan native Sybil Kathigasu provided intelligence and medical supplies to resistance fighters in Malaya as did lesser known Lim Bo Seng – both of whom were tortured in detention by the dreaded Kempetai during World War 2, Sybil never recovering from her injuries post-war, while Lim paid the ultimate sacrifice under interrogation," he said in a statement.
Ti said we are lucky to have veterans groups like Patriot who were there to know the facts, tell the truth, and also correctly point out that there were Malay communists too.
He said in the stand-off against the Al Maunah terrorists, who were later sentenced to death for waging war against the Agong, one Iban soldier and one Indian police officer were abducted and tortured to death in the line of duty.
"Kudos to Patriot for upholding the truths and correcting the false, inflammatory and divisive facts portrayed by the Ummah chairman," Ti added.

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