Muar, 28th February 2020 - Seventy years ago, on Feb 23, 1950, our brave policemen, led by Sergeant Jamil Mohd Shah, fought with valour against an overwhelming number of communists. We Malaysians owe them a debt and must remember with utmost gratitude the sacrifice and patriotism of these brave policemen.
The Bukit Kepong incident, as it was called, was an armed encounter between the then Federation of Malaya Police and the gunmen of the outlawed Malayan Communist Party during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960).
The conflict took place at the Bukit Kepong police station, located in a remote area on the banks of Muar river, about 60km from Muar in Johor.
Heavily outnumbered — there were almost 200 communists armed with superior automatic weapons compared with just 20 or so policemen with only rifles and shotguns — the policemen fought valiantly despite numerous calls by the communists for them to surrender.
Several policemen were killed together with two of their wives who took up arms when their husbands fell in the conflict.
Having overrun the police station, the attackers then burnt down the wooden barracks, resulting in many casualties among the police families.
It was a turning point in the Malayan Emergency. Where previously they carried out bandit attacks on plantations, villages and small towns, the communists soon launched big-scale, unprovoked armed attacks against the administration and security personnel.
The then British administration, with the help of security forces from Commonwealth countries, and subsequently after our independence in 1957, carried the fight to the communists in their jungle hideouts.
By 1960, the bloody conflict came to an end. Thousands of communist terrorists were eliminated while the remnants fled across the border, never to return.
Let us not forget the sacrifices made by our police and other security personnel in the history of our nation.
Let not any divisiveness among our people destroy the peace and security we enjoy through the services and sacrifices by so many in our beloved Malaysia.
Source: New Straits Times, https://www.nst.com.my/…/they-gave-their-lives-nations-peace
