PAS stopped from meeting Bukit Kepong victim

Some 10 men blocked a PAS delegation from meeting one of the victims of the Bukit Kepong incident, said Johor PAS Youth chief Suhaizan Kayat.

Suhaizan ( right ) said he and six other party members had accompanied PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu in a three-vehicle convoy to Skudai Kanan, Johor yesterday to meet with the victim, Jamilah Abu Bakar.

He claimed that a group - comprising of Umno members - then appeared to prevent the PAS members’ advance.

"They blocked us and accused Mat Sabu of trying to defend Mat Indera. They demanded that he retract his statement or else we cannot pass.

“They were not rational," he said when contacted yesterday.

In a speech on August 21, Mohamad who is popularly known as Mat Sabu ( below ), had claimed that Muhammed Indera, the man who led a bloody onslaught against the Bukit Kepong police station in 1950, was a “hero” of the struggle for independence.

This caused an uproar among certain quarters who, led by Umno leaders and the party-owned newspaper Utusan Malaysia , accused Mohamad of glorifying the communists insurgents who Muhammad Indera - more popularly known as Mat Indera - was leading.

"We went there with good intentions, but they stopped us and we felt uncomfortable (and worried) that there might be a fight, so we left," said Suhaizan.

Suhaizan explained that the party wanted to meet Jamilah as they had received information that she was wounded during the Bukit Kepong assault and was rescued by Mat Indera.

"We wanted to clarify this fact and also offer legal assistance if they want to make claims from the British government, as her mother and sibling was killed during the attack."

Jamilah refuses visit

Jamillah's father was then a marine constable who in the incident in 1950 was shot several times by the insurgents, but survived the attack. He died of cancer in 1979.

Malay daily Berita Harian today, however, reported that the PAS delegation was blocked as Jamilah did not want to meet Mat Sabu.

"There is no need to come. This is too much that it reopen old wounds. How can I welcome someone who denies my father and his comrades' sacrifices and fight in defending the people and country that he was willing to sacrifice his life? He (Mat Sabu) glorifies the communist," she was quoted as saying by Berita Harian .

Since Mat Sabu's statement, a debate has raged over the status of Mat Indera on whether he was a freedom fighter for independence or a communist terrorist.

A recent development saw PAS noting that even the Johor government in a book published in 2004 had called Mat Indera a freedom fighter and listed him as a celebrated Johor hero.

The government had acknowledged during the Baling Agreement, after which the Communist Party of Malaya laid down arms, that they had played a role in the struggle for independence.

Others, however, maintain the communist as propagators of an atheist ideology whose fight against the British colonialists and local government officers led to a period of terror, death and destruction.