The Tyranny Of History

Hantu Laut

George Santayana's "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" or George Bernard Shaw's "If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience".

Henry Ford laments "History is more or less bunk( rubbish)", but I say one must learn from history as not to repeat it.We can collated history but once carved in stone we can't change it.

When I was a young man at lower secondary school we learned world's history, history of the British Empire and local history as well.

In one local history we learned about a man called "Mat Salleh" who was branded a pirate and a rebel by the British.For many years the school children of Sabah had been taught to deplore Mat Salleh as a pirate, a rebel and a troublemaker.Read the story here what caused Mat Salleh to rebel against the British.

Now, Mat Salleh is a patriot, a fighter and a hero fighting against unjust (?) British rule.Young Sabahans that have not read the old history book were asked to revere Mat Salleh as a true freedom fighter and a hero.The government even built a fort in Tambunan in his honour that looked more like a church without the cross.




Tambunan was his last stand before he was killed by the British.There is even a folklore that he may return one day to finish the job.

Sabah used to be owned by Brunei whose Sultan later ceded the territory to the Sultan of Sulu, who later ceded the territory by way of a lease to an Austrian, Baron Von Overbeck, who later sold the lease to Alfred Dent who formed the Chartered Company that ruled Sabah from 1881 until 1946 when it became a British crown colony.

There was no central government and no law and order before the Chartered Compay took charge of the country which they called North Borneo and later known as British North Borneo when it became a British colony after World War II.

We all know 16 Sept 1963, when Sabah, Sarawak,Singapore and Malaya became a new nation called Malaysia.Singapore was kicked out of Malaysia two years later. After that as we all know..... the rest is history.

Depending who wrote the history books, historical events can be adjudged according to the prevailing time or manipulated to suit the capricious and often blinkered mood of the person.

Most, if not all, history books that we read and learned from were written by Western writers. The East do not have the resources and education to write their own history books then.

What is history?

In a nutshell, it is a study of past events, particularly in human affairs.History can be the accretion of facts, half-truths or fictions.Why fight tooth and nail over it. Why don't we just leave the tyranny of history behind us and look forward to the future.

Malaysian politicians surely came off the same mould, both sides are over reacting to such useless piece of history.

Malaya gained independence through peaceful means and the wisdom of people like Onn Jaafar,Tengku Abdul Rahman and the ilk, certainly not those idiots who stormed and killed innocent people at the Kepong Police station.

To sum it all up, Malaya gained independence through the wisdom of UMNO leaders,the Chinese and Indian leaders at that time......and as they say "The rest is history".

Year of ASEAN Opposition?

By Mong Palatino

Since last year, opposition parties across Southeast Asia have achieved varying degrees of electoral and political success.

The opposition Liberal Party dominated the 2010 Philippine elections and defeated the ruling party, which had been in power since 2001. The opposition victory reflected the unpopularity of former President Gloria Arroyo, who was accused of electoral fraud, human rights violations, corruption and plundering state coffers.

Recently, the opposition Pheu Thai Party defeated the ruling Democrat Party in Thailand, which led to the election of Yingluck Shinawatra – the country’s first female prime minister. Yingluck is the younger sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was forced into exile after he was overthrown in a military coup in 2006. During the campaign, the opposition highlighted the culpability of the Democrat Party in the violent crackdown of anti-government protests last year, the worsening insurgency in the southern part of the country, the hostile relationship with Cambodia over a border dispute and the rising economic difficulties experienced by ordinary Thais.

Meanwhile, the People's Action Party (PAP) is still Singapore’s dominant political coalition after it won the most seats in the general election last May. Also, the candidate the party endorsed won last week’s presidential election. But the opposition scored some significant victories this year after it managed to win a few but strategic parliamentary seats. The PAP, which has dominated Singaporean politics since the late 1950s, also suffered its worst electoral performance this year, which according to analysts has permanently altered Singapore’s political landscape.

As in Singapore, the ruling coalition in Malaysia still has more than enough numbers in parliament, but the opposition is gaining ground. The disenchantment of the public with the country’s political leadership is also rising as seen in the massive participation of ordinary Malaysians in the Bersih democracy march in July. Organized in support of electoral reforms, the Bersih has since then evolved into an opposition political movement following the overreaction of the government, which violently dispersed the peaceful march. Bersih is expected to bring more votes to the opposition.

Moving on to Burma, many analysts were surprised to learn that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has agreed to meet President Thein Sein of the military-controlled government. They are now asking if the global democracy icon has decided to work with the people who imprisoned her for more than two decades. But it could simply be an opposition tactic for outmanoeuvring the generals. Just a few weeks ago, Suu Kyi was allowed to travel to the north of the country for the first time since she regained her freedom, and she was warmly greeted by the people in the streets. The opposition hasn’t yet ditched the prospect of revolution, but it seems to be quietly maximizing the limited democratic space afforded to it by the Junta. Read more.

The Death March

Brits Retrace Borneo Death March Written by Luke Hunt

Monday, 05 September 2011

66 years later victims of Japanese atrocities remembered
It's quite possibly the toughest hike in the world, and it had never been completed in its entirety until last weekend when 14 British soldiers emerged from the Borneo jungle after retracing the steps of the infamous death marches forced on prisoners of war towards the end of World War II.

Only six Australians survived three marches that claimed 1,781 Australian and 641 British troops as the Japanese who feared an allied invasion attempted to transfer POWs from Sandakan on the northeast coast of Borneo in what is now Malaysia’s Sabah state to camps in the interior.

All were malnourished, many were afflicted with malaria or beriberi. They were lucky to get 85g of rice a day, were beaten along the way and most who survived the 264 kilometer journey later shot or bayoneted.

The atrocities were considered too great for public consumption and were hushed up by governments in London and Canberra for decades after the war. The truth remained largely hidden until five of the surviving six Australians began to speak openly about what happened in 1985.

"It was emotional, reflective and at times we were close to tears as you realize what happened here 66 years ago," said Captain Dave Appleby.

In more recent years the trek has been transformed into a pilgrimage for veterans of all wars and people wanting to pay their respects to the fallen along the Sandakan to Ranau route. In doing so, many have attempted to complete the historic trail but the journey has proven too arduous and no one has completed the full trek until now.

As the chief guide, Tham Yau Kong, of the British expedition explained, there was always a reluctance to take hikers, particularly the unfit, into the uncharted jungle.

"Never had any of the numerous Death March groups done it, we kept it sacred only for a group where everyone is very, very fit and this well-trained British group is very, very fit," he said.

The team, led by Major Claire Curry and Captain Chas May, hiked up to eight hours a day for almost two weeks, departing on VJ day, Aug. 15, and reached the summit of Taviu Hill, which was the toughest part of the hike.

The 70-degree slope was waterlogged and slippery from torrential rain and the team had to form a human chain to drag each other up and over the summit. This was followed by a three-hour hike through waist-deep water teeming with leeches.

The odd snake was avoided; however, the razor sharp undergrowth was a constant problem. Each night the bagpipes were sounded and each morning a bugler played The Last Post and Reveille.

"It was an honor and a privilege to be the first from the British military to walk the route and honor the fallen," Maj Curry said. "The cohesiveness of the marching contingent was outstanding. It was exhausting and the group had to dig deep."

The expedition was put together by Major John Tulloch, a retired veteran of many conflicts including Vietnam, where he served with the New Zealand army, and Northern Ireland, where he served with the Royal Artillery Regiment.

Tulloch came to North Borneo in 1999 to commemorate the fallen. After some basic research he realized the vast majority of British soldiers who perished were from his own Royal Artillery Regiment and this made it all the more personal.

"I suppose the poignant moment was in 2004 when I had done my research into the various books that were out there, counted up and realized that 400 out of the 641 British POWs were from my regiment. How did I feel? I felt sick that we had no memorial to them, no monument, no recognition.

"None of the serving regiment knew about it and indeed the majority of the retired regiment were unaware and I just set my sights, something had to be done," Tulloch said.

It was a difficult task, raising funds and finding sponsorship. But eventually a team of 14 was assembled from the ranks of the regiment to undertake the march and construction began on a stone memorial dedicated to the fallen from Tulloch's regiment.

Most of the marchers have experience in current conflicts, most recently Afghanistan and Iraq, where Curry flew helicopters during the second Gulf War.

"The team did well. Tired and emotionally drained, realizing what they had done and achieved with the full realization of what an extraordinary type of person those POWs must have been to achieve that distance. The team were physically tested, mentally tested and emotionally tested," Tulloch said. Read more.

Leak At Wikileaks

A Dispatch Disaster in Six Acts

By Christian Stöcker

Getty Images

Some 250,000 diplomatic dispatches from the US State Department have accidentally been made completely public. The files include the names of informants who now must fear for their lives. It is the result of a series of blunders by WikiLeaks and its supporters.

In the end, all the efforts at confidentiality came to naught. Everyone who knows a bit about computers can now have a look into the 250,000 US diplomatic dispatches that WikiLeaks made available to select news outlets late last year. All of them. What's more, they are the unedited, unredacted versions complete with the names of US diplomats' informants -- sensitive names from Iran, China, Afghanistan, the Arab world and elsewhere.

SPIEGEL reported on the secrecy slip-up last weekend, but declined to go into detail. Now, however, the story has blown up. And is one that comes as a result of a series of mistakes made by several different people. Together, they add up to a catastrophe. And the series of events reads like the script for a B movie.

Act One: The Whistleblower and the Journalist

The story began with a secret deal. When David Leigh of the Guardian finally found himself sitting across from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as the British journalist recounts in his book "Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy", the two agreed that Assange would provide Leigh with a file including all of the diplomatic dispatches received by WikiLeaks.

Assange placed the file on a server and wrote down the password on a slip of paper -- but not the entire password. To make it work, one had to complete the list of characters with a certain word. Can you remember it? Assange asked. Of course, responded Leigh.

It was the first step in a disclosure that became a worldwide sensation. As a result of Leigh's meeting with Assange, not only the Guardian, but also the New York Times, SPIEGEL and other media outlets published carefully chosen -- and redacted -- dispatches. Editors were at pains to black out the names of informants who could be endangered by the publication of the documents.Read more.