Excerpt from Dr. Lim's Media lynching and academic collaorators in CPI:
Mat Sabu’s intellectual honesty
Prof. Khoo’s field of specialization is not the Malayan Communist Party or Chin Peng or recent Malayan political history.
Although his PhD was on the topic ‘The Beginnings of Political Extremism in Malaya 1915-1935’, it does not cover the period of the 1940s and 1950s when the struggle for independence took place in earnest and during which time the MCP underwent various metamorphosis and change in ideological direction in its objective to free Malaya from the colonial yoke of the British.
Prof. Khoo could have waited for clarification or explanation from Mat Sabu, and for any justification the latter may have provided for his views. That would have been the correct academic etiquette.
Or if Prof. Khoo was in haste, he could at least have relied on scholars that have done more authoritative work on the MCP and through their studies provided an academic and more truthful historical context and explanation for the Bukit Kepong incident and the communist fighters.
Instead he was reported to have stated that “Mohamad should not lie to the people when the rakyat today was easily led astray and misinformed” (NST, p.10). Not only has he dismissed Mat Sabu’s account without checking with the victim of the public lynching but he has diverted the issue away from Mat Sabu’s focus on who were Malaya’s freedom fighters to the international origins and orientation of the Malayan Communist Party in the 1920s and 30s!
Readers can view Mat Sabu’s talk at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ItcuiUCw4qY
http://www.ukm.my/knam/data/Peristiwa_Bukit_Kepong.pdf
Prof. Khoo is no academic innocent or virgin when it comes to press coverage. He must know that the NST has its knives out for Mat Sabu and other opposition or civil society leaders that stand in the way of UMNO’s agenda. He must know or at least he should know that there would be no fair trial and that the pursuit of academic facts and intellectual truth is the furthest away from being a concern or priority of the NST.
Mat Sabu is feared by Umno and its mouthpieces, the NST and Utusan for good reason. He is PAS’s thinking, progressive and committed face – not simply a face but someone who possesses not only the intellectual honesty to raise uncomfortable questions about how our history is being written but also is prepared to take a contrary position to defend his take on historical truth.
In doing so, Mat Sabu puts to shame the academic hangers-on that are quick to bray when called upon by the government.
http://english.cpiasia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2237:media-lynching-and-academic-collaborators&catid=228:commentary&Itemid=196
Ariff Sabri's take is enlightening too:
http://sakmongkol.blogspot.com/2011/09/mat-sabus-historical-revisionism.html
Link
3 comments:
This N3 remind me of a programme I once attended. Prof Khoo was there. A young activist who is a member of a group in which Prof Khoo is a committee member told me: "We will never be going anywhere as long as that old man is sitting in a committee."
I was surprised and amused then.
I am not surprised as I had come across retired teachers who were put off by his take on several matters. Lee Lam Thye too, when every statement had to be guarded and appeared wishy washy. Wong Chun Wai and Jocelyn Tan are now being criticized for their pro-BN stance which most people would acknowledge as being part and parcel of mainstream media.
one sad episode for one old man for not using his brain...
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