Discussions over at Politics101 on Ronnie Liu’s ‘alternative’ history have brought into question the action of communists during the Emergency. Far from being revisionist, Mr Liu’s statement makes certain claims about ‘true national heroes’ which, though they resonate true, are put across seemingly in contradistinction to the former Prime Ministers of the country.


Poor memories, snide characterizations
Unfortunately, for all of Khairy’s fist-shaking, Mr Liu appears to be close to the truth. I’m not up to speed with Malaysian history, but conversations with people who were there during that period confirm that independence was hard-won from the Japanese, first, then the British with the constant pressure of the PKMM and indeed other groups of Malayans.

Was Ronnie Liu essentially claiming that UMNO and BN were being revisionists? I don’t think so. But what he has done, in his insouciant manner, is dig up historical roots that seem to contradict Khairy and Hishammudin’s stance on the ‘Malay struggle’. If the struggle for an independent Malaysia preceded ideas of Malay superiority, if it involved more than just ethnically chauvanistic attitudes, then the essential lie that is exposed is the idea of an independent Malaysia ignorant of the contributions of its non-Malay progeny.

And that I believe is the central point, and it touched a raw nerve. Mr Liu’s characterisation of placid, passive former Prime Ministers as being ‘government servants’ and therefore somehow part of the establishment that had for decades oppressed natives under its colonial fist of iron is uncalled for, in my opinion. That others had shed blood fighting for Malaysia is no reason to suggest that the few who worked to broker a deal for a new Malaysia did any less for our country.

The above, of course, is only anecdotal and students of history would be better able to split hairs over whose involvement mattered the most. It is curious, however, that there was much heat over the apparent ‘bombing’ of the Tugu Negara. The appropriate posts are here and here. The information is in the comments of the former post. I’ve scoured the internet but can’t find any references to any attack on the Tugu Negara, which were constructed in 1966.

Let’s operate with the assumption that the monuments were attacked, bombed or blown to smithereens. What possible reasons could communist insurgents have for doing such a thing?

Memories in stone
A monument is defined by Dictionary.com as:

mon·u·ment
n.

1. A structure, such as a building or sculpture, erected as a memorial.
2. An inscribed marker placed at a grave; a tombstone.
3. Something venerated for its enduring historic significance or association with a notable past person or thing: the architectural monuments of ancient Rome; traditions that are monuments to an earlier era.
4.
a. An outstanding enduring achievement: a translation that is a monument of scholarship.
b. An exceptional example: “Thousands of them wrote texts, some of them monuments of dullness” (Robert L. Heilbroner).
5. An object, such as a post or stone, fixed in the ground so as to mark a boundary or position.
6. A written document, especially a legal one.

The Tugu Negara, being special, is not merely a monument. It’s an ubiquitous gravestone marking the deaths of many who, in their struggle against the Japanese, the British and yes, the Communists, believed in a certain idea of Malaysia.

An idea of Malaysia. And it is ubiquitous because it represents an easily forgotten but imprinted piece of social memory; blood and tears were shed in the service of this idea of Malaysia. It’s a kind of liminal boundary between the past and the present that exists in all our futures — a kind of marker wherein the struggle to give birth and voice to this idea of Malaysia makes that essential crossing over into an independent Malaysia.

My earliest memories of it were seeing it from a distance when I was very, very young. My father had brought all of us there for a moment of quiet reflection; he was in the army during the Emergency, and remembering how his childhood years under the shadow of Japanese tyranny had marked him and the rest of my uncles and aunties. I think he lost some good friends during that period.

But I now view it with a kind of detachment. The Tugu Negara speaks to me in a different language, and little wonder since I played no part in the struggle for independence, being born after it. But yet I and so many others enjoy the fruit of such an independence. We live with a stark modernity now, disconnected and detached from a country with no struggles and no crusades to wage. There is no cause now, but to remember the battles of a bygone age.

Malaysia as remembered
And yet, suppose such a monument were bombed by a group of communist insurgents. I try to imagine, without context, how they might feel. What would have led them to destroy or deface a symbol of the birth of a Malayan identity? That act alone would have been carried out lightly; it is as if a group of disaffected christian fundamentalists blew up the Sistine Chapel in protest. It’s almost unconscienable.

If they did blow up the Tugu Negara, it could mean many things: a sense of betrayal over the new political landscape of Malaysia; a sense of injustice for having their voices quelled by parties not aligned with it; an entrenched belief that the Tugu Negara stood for a Malaysia that meant nothing to them, meant less than nothing to them, if not coloured by their own ideologies.

I wonder if it would be any different from the French mobs who stormed the Bastille, or Guy Fawke’s attempt to blow up the House of Parliament. Both events in history are as rife with symbolism, as much counter to the regime in their own eras as the blowing up of the Tugu Negara.

For the communist or nationalist, the Tugu Negara remains a potent symbol of an inchoate yearning to be free from the yoke of oppressors, perceived or otherwise. It is a marker for history, and as history, should be fully revealed in its significance, for all Malaysians. And that means being true to the contributions of those who struggled for the idea of a Malaysia, no matter the shade or colour of those ideas.

Khairy and ultra-nationalists of his ilk would do well to remember that.

Link: Wiki: Malayan Emergency

(Update: Politics101 has put up a refering link to this website with some information on the actual bombing of the Tugu Negara.)