'There was no Internet then so the truth could not be told. There was just the mainstream media under the control of the British.'

'Mat Indera was a student of Muhyiddin's father'

Headwillroll: Mat Indera and the Umno leaders who fought the British were men of steel filled with nationalist idealism and therefore all of them could be called true freedom fighters.

We salute all of them for sacrificing their lives for us all. No matter what we do, we will never be able to repay them.

But the current bunch of Umno leaders are different. They have lost all inkling of nationalism. They lie, cheat and plunder the nation's wealth for their own gain.

What has become of the current Umno rulers? Why have they put their personal interest above the nation? This is the actual debate.

Franco: Not only Mat Indera was labelled as communist but a more organised and inclusive All-Malaya Council of Joint Action (AMCJA) - a coalition of unions fighting for the rights of all Malayan regardless of race, colour, religion or origin, i.e. the rights all our forefathers who considered Malaya their home.

What the colonial masters, the royalties and the ultras did? They banned the movement , labeled them communist and put them behind bars.

There seems to be some similarities now and then- the arrest of PSM6, the banning of Bersih, which in my opinion, the modern version of AMCJA. Watch this documentary on Youtube for a better understanding on AMCJA.

Anonymous_3da0: In previous attempts to vilify PAS over the Memali incident, Umno used the mainstream media to portray PAS as violent extremists despite that they have participated in every election since Independence.

When PAS went on a roadshow bringing along with them survivors of the massacre to tell their side of the story, police stepped in to prevent the ceramah from taking place.

The civil lawsuit against the government was lodged by the victims in 1988, and have been stuck in the court system through numerous infamous chief justices. I expect more of the same here.

Serina: I am wondering if all comments in Malaysiakin i are from Malaysiakini journalists themselves. All sounded so gullible over a rubbish article such as this.

I have stop reading the mainstream newspapers and now I am actually subscribing to this worthless piece of garbage. I must say Malaysiakini is losing its cause in championing its real reason of existence.

I hope my comment goes to the the editor - please stop glorifying the ideas of the likes of Mat Sabu... let Harakah clean up his mess.

Not Convinced: It looks like Serina didn't get it. This is not about defending Mat Sabu. It is about defending the truth, or at least, one version of the truth.

Malaysians need to reclaim our history. The Bukit Kepong attack was in 1950 - a good seven years before Malay independence. While we may today disagree with the violence, Mat Indera deserved a place in our history, along side other ‘heroes' like Maharajalela.

P Dev Anand Pillai: History has been distorted and re-written by Umno to maintain its hegemony among the Malays. Many don't even know the actual history of Malaya and why there were many Malays in the Communist Party of Malaya.

So instead of listening to the indoctrination of Umno and its mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia , let the Malays have the freedom to think for themselves.

History can't be changed, and the truth will eventually be told as how it happened. The Malays of today can't be conned anymore.

Bersih 2.5: I think actually Umno was formed just to fight against the Malayan Union since these Malay nobles who worked as high ranking officers in the British offices and some Malay rulers felt threatened if the proposal was to take effect.

That was why they fought - to safeguard their status. If the British government did not introduce the Malayan Union, I don't think most Umno leaders would put up a fight for independence.

It was because of the pressure from the ‘real fighters' like Pak Sako (Ishak Haji Muhammad), Ahmad Boestamam, Dr Burhanuddin Helmi and Samsiah Fakeh that the British had to grant independence to their "adopted sons" in form of Umno, MCA and MIC.

Humored: This just shows that those who were labeled ‘communist' by the colonial masters where often not necessarily communist.

They may very well be ordinary citizens who believe in true democracy and therefore stood up to the British and was given the communist label as propaganda to ensure compliance by the rest of the masses.

There was no Internet then, so the truth could not be told from another perspective. There was just the mainstream media, which was under the control of the British rulers then.

Isn't it the same now with the PSM group, the only difference is the Internet. Thank God for that, otherwise the PSM may suffer the same fate as Mat Indera and be maligned for a long time.

Hor Chew Xiang: Let's get history right here. The current ‘Umno' is actually ‘Umno Baru', which was founded in 1988 - hence ‘Umno Baru' never played any role in fighting for independence.

The original Umno founded in 1946 is long gone - it has ceased to exist. ‘Umno Baru' have demonstrated very different values than the original ‘Umno' - that's why some of our founding fathers refused to join ‘Umno Baru'.

Furthermore, Onn Jaafar, co-founder of Umno, wanted the original ‘Umno' to change its communal politics and to include all ethnic groups. He wanted to make Umno the ‘United Malayans National Organisation', open to all ethnic members.

Fillio: The so-called Alliance comprising Umno, MCA and MIC is an offshoot of British colonialism. The proof is that independence was handed on a silver plater to the Alliance, rather than the colonial power was driven out through war by the nationalists as in almost all independences achieved by all other nations.

The British after losing substantial resources including lives in fighting their 'enemies' was wiser to package proxy to achieve their objectives.

Now one can really see the role played by the Alliance, the so-called negotiator (to use Kim Quek's terminology ) for independence as compared to the real nationalists fighting and driving the British out of Malaya, after Mat Sabu has opened the Pandora's box.

Puchong Mali: History is always written by the victors and it is usually littered with over-glorification of their victorious deeds. On the other hand, the vanquished always suffer the ignominy of being vilified or demonised even in their graves.

That is so true until the coming of Internet age. Umno-BN, having lost their monopoly in the means of transmitting whatever their narration to the mass, is running scared.

Layer by layer their fallacious facades are being peeled off when more and more facts are brought to the fore and truths are being unearthed through unhindered, reasoned discourse.

One Brain Cell: Thanks to Mat Sabu, a very interesting character in our history (Mat Indera) has been resurrected and given the recognition he clearly deserved.

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