you know wat, i just cant beleive how expensive books in this country. year after year the goverment had been harping that malaysians should cultivate a reading habit. but how do the younger generations develop this habit when the cost of a book is nothing less than RM30. one might suggest the public library as an alternative but the simple fact is that our public library is so poorly stock that it just pointless.
anyway, just bought two books 'alias chin peng: my side of history'(RM70)and 'to digress a little'(RM38).
currently, am now half way thru reading the chin peng book. its a really good read. anyone interested in malaysian history and politics should read it. it gives an alternative view of the involvement of CPM(communist party of Malaya) during the japanese occupation and the subsequent 12 years Emergency period. we should not formed a final conclusion on the role of CPM based on what we've been studying from the history textbook.
for instance, we were told that immediately after the japanese surrender, the MPAJA(malayan people against Japenese army), the military wing of the CPM, went on a killing rampage for 3 weeks until the arrival of the British. it was claimed that the MPAJA, which was predominatly chinese, were targeting the malays and all those who collaborated with the japanese. in the book, chin peng did not deny the fact that they did kill the colaborators, but he deny they were systematically killing the malays. what happen was 3 japanese soldiers disguised in the MPAJA uniform killed a pig in a mosque in johor. the malays believing that they were really chinese, got real mad and started attacking chinese settlements with their parangs. the outnumbered and defenceless chinese villagers sought protection from the CPM. the CPM responded by forming boundaries around the chinese settlements. they warned the malays not to cross the line or they would be shot. the malays with their parangs, believing that they would be invisible to bullets because of their magical amulet, crossed anyway and were shot at. seeing their leaders drop dead, the rest begin to scatter away. things only came back to normal after dato Jaafar Onn went to explained matters to the malays.
there are many other interesting facts that were never told to us. if you get the chance, go read the book.
