A saner look at Bukit Kepong.
Since Mr Mat Sabu made his 'ill-informed' (Refer to Mr Karpal) comment, the Malaysian media, historical academia and media has been taking frequent refreshment breaks at the loony bin's drinking pool. Heroes became non-heroes then back to heroes: we were colonized then protected but not colonized but looking back the letters were from the Colonial office. I commented this morning while chatting with my fishmonger and another customer, to understand Malaysian politics today we need to have Panadol handy.
What is the basic question that I am looking at here?
What concerns me the most, how should we regard the people killled defending the Bukit Kepong Police station?
Who were the people killed at Bukit Kepong?
For the moment, bear with me and forget about Mat Indera, I'll discuss him at another time. The people I am concerned with this time are the people defending the Bukit Kepong Police Station. It has been agreed that they were police officer and their family members. Who paid their salaries may not be relevant, see below for the justifications. Established fact: they were police officers and their family members.,
What were their function at Bulit Kepong?
They were policemen stationed at the Bukit Kepong Station. Police officers are assigned as peace keepers and protectors of the people and property where they were stationed. They are also agents of the powers that be, or as Althusser calls it, they are also part of the Repressive State Apparatus. This role, they fulfill when they are carrying out policies of the government that they serve: usually the more unsavoury policies. So the point is, the policemen and their families are not monolothic in their role and function: on the one hand they were protectors of the people and property but on the other hand, they were agents of the government. You can argue which government that is, at this point, that is irrelevant. See below.
What role were they functioning in when they were killed?
When the attack at the station happened, they were manning the station. This is when they are the people we seek out when someone breaks into our houses and run away with our material posessions and sometimes the lives of our loved ones, this is when we seek them out when one of our neighbours loses his or her mind and starts attacking us and our other neighbours. In short, they were at the station so that when something goes wrong, the townsfolk had someone to turn to to get help.
Put simpler, those who attacked the Bulit Kepong Station killed people who were protecting the people and property.
In this light, Mat Sabu was wrong. The people who died defending Bukit Kepong deserved to be respected, at the very least. They died defending the place where they were supposed to be in case they were needed by the people. They died being there for the people, or as they are more fervently called, the Rakyat. In this light, they were heroes (and heroines).
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