SALUTE!

As a matter of record

Well what else needs to be said?

Somebody Really Dropped The Ball

Recently there has been campaigns including on Facebook to ban the movie New Village based on the trailer below and after an Op-Ed was published in the Utusan Malaysia.

Frankly I did not give a damn because the campaign was against the Cinema Chains that was supposed to show it and not the real responsible authorities like the LPF or FINAS who gave the screening license. However due to the Pressure by these campaigns finally the Responsible Ministers Datuk Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek has issued statements that the movie will be reviewed again as per the press statement in this article and this article.

However the following comment piqued my interest to watch the trailer for me to make an informed opinion on the matter ;

"  The Board will review the movie to see if it has any form of communist messages "

I do not know if the LPF reviewed the movies without the sub-titles, but to me the following clearly fits the bill.

It is said that the movie is about the MPAJA rather than the PKM, so the subject matter is not supposedly directly pro-communist but the following is the description given in the Youtube page.

"This film is dedicated to our forefathers, especially the 500,000 local Chinese forcing to be resettled in 480 New Village camps during 1948-1960 Emergency period in the Malay Peninsula."

However to the history deficient Malaysians who may not know it, the MPAJA stands for the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army and by 1948 there were no longer any Japanese Army to fight against, and the Brigg's Plan is clearly as follows ;

"Briggs' Plan was a military plan devised by British General Sir Harold Briggs shortly after his appointment in 1950 as Director of Operations in the anti-communist war in Malaya. The plan aimed to defeat the Malayan communists, who were operating out of rural areas as a guerrilla army, primarily by cutting them off from their sources of support amongst the population. To this end, a massive program of forced resettlement of Malayan peasantry was undertaken, under which about 500,000 people (roughly ten percent of Malaya's population) were eventually removed from the land and interned in guarded camps called "New Villages". "

In fact, by the time there only existed the PKM. So clearly there is creative license being used by the maker's of the movie, but then their intention needs to be questioned, NO?

I Wonder...

Could it be that the Mahindra Axe is undergoing trials in Malaysia? Comment if you have seen it, thank you.

Appreciating The Past

It is now obvious the effects on the lost generation who had the history subject yanked out of their educational syllabus for whatever reason that was deemed fit at the time. So we now have a generation who are culturally insensitive, unaware of how the serene lifestyle they have now is arrived at, arrogant with their thinking as if all what is achieved is their due and that there is not need for gratitude without realizing that the dues was actually paid by others' sacrifices, in particular the older generation that includes their life or families.

AS such it is always a good effort for us to re-instill the sense of historical appreciation in the younger generation who I personally see as being lost in their learning of History as I experience with my own daughters. History I admit is a very dry subject unless you have really deep interest to study, thus creative efforts must be taken to teach the subject in schools I believe. Thus it was of great interest for me to learn that my elder daughter's school intends to have an Patriotic Event in the Independence month of August, and since I have discussed previously with a local author the possibly of having speakers to come to schools and other institutions of learning so that they can relate their experiences in defending this great nation of ours, I jumped at the chance to offer them the possibly and am glad they have accepted it.

The local author is Mej (B) Nor Ibrahim Bin Sulaiman, the writer of two local military books self-published by him, one of which is the above and when I made arrangements to purchase the books for my community school he mentioned that there is a group of ex-servicemen who are interested to go to ground to relate their experiences so that the young in particular are instilled a sense of appreciation for the nation building history of the nation. Mind you that this is an apolitical gesture so please get that thought out of your mind.Not beating my own drums but Mejar commented that he would like to see more people donate more books like his to the local institutions of learning so that more can get the chance to learn what has transpired in the past.So do give this a thought will you. Thanks!

Anyway I am glad to note that I have been referred by the Mejar to contact two PGB awardees Mej Datuk Salehuddin PGB and Lt-Kol Basri PGB and will be making arrangements for their appearance in due course. Mej Datuk Salehuddin PGB story is included in the book as posted here and you can read one of the many exploits of Lt-Kol Basri here. I should be able to post a report of the event here once it is held InsyaAllah.

I end again with my appeal for you to consider how to consider you can support similar efforts for your community. To me the simplest way is for you to purchase the Mejar's or other local historian books that has been published and donate it to the school libraries or similar institutions. If you would like to have speakers for the re-telling, do contact Mejar so that he can refer suitable speakers for your location at his blog Jottings of Xnuripilot. May your efforts be blessed.