Post by Isaac Ho, the Admin on May 17, 2015 12:57:36 GMT -5
THE BATANG KALI MASSACRE
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by Isaac Ho, the Admin & Founder of this Forum
The Rt. Hon. David Cameron has once again been reelected as the Prime Minister of United Kingdom after his customary visit to the
Buckingham Palace to inform Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. This occurred some two weeks ago after U.K's general election.
However, the Batang Kali Massacre still looms in the minds of many Chinese Malaysians and despite several high powered petitions
to both the Queen and the British Conservative Party, no satisfactory answer has been found on the basis of the Cameron's
government of "insufficient evidence" to prosecute that surviving Scot-Guards who has perpetrated the crime of cold-blooded
murder on the misty morning of December 1948 at a British-owned rubber estate on the Genting Highland Road in which some
twenty-four innocent and unarmed Chinese rubber tappers (of Hakka origin) faced summarily execution.
This glaring wrong has not be righted - neither any official apology nor compensation to the survivors.
The Malaysian Chinese must keep the issue going to extract a governmental apology and compensation from the British
Government under David Cameron and is attempting to sweep the mistake under the British rug...hoping that time would
forget this unforgettable issue....just like the cold-blooded murder of some Jewish Holocaust and the Rape of Nanking.
Below is an old new report by the British newspaper called The Guardian Weekly and the write up on the Batang Kali Massacre,
and herewith, I am sharing this with all of you, dear concerned readers of this forum:-
Title: 'I SURVIED BATANG KALI' - Wednesday, December 9th, 2009.
Introduction: THAM YONG, 78, was just 17 when a patrol of British army soldiers arrived at her village of Batang Kali, in what was
then Malaya, December 11, 1948. By the time the soldiers left the following day, 24 of her fellow villagers has been shot dead,
including her fiancé. The Incident took place during the so-called "Malayan Emergency," when British troops were fighting a
communist insurrection aimed at ending British colonial rule over Malaya. The Ministry of Defence maintains even today that an
inquiry into the events at Batang Kali would be "unlikely" to reach firm conclusions about what happened in 1948, despite
eyewitness account from survivors and a confession from a Scots guard. As the survivors and victims' families wait for a final
decision from the MOD on the incident, Yojng describes where what actual happened on that fateful morning....!!!
Before the soldiers came, we had led a very simple life in our village. We worked on the rubber plantation, would used bamboo
poles to catch fish in the river and had about two dishes that we would always cook.
We didn't seen any fighting, although we heard from other villagers about some in the hills nearby. As for the communists, we
didn't know what one was and they didn't come t the village - if they had, we would have reported them to the police.
Some soldiers came to our village once or twice though. When we burning bamboo, it would sometimes explode, like a gun going
off, so they came to investigate. On December 11th though, when the soldiers came, they were with an ethnic Chinese detective
and very fierce. They ordered the women to stop cooking the rice and the men to stop tapping the rubber trees.
They told us to separate, with the women and children going into one side of the kongsi (a traditional hut) and the men into the
other. We stayed there as it grew dark. There was no food for us and no explanation of what was happening. Then the Chinese
detective said to us: "You saw communists, they came here." I said I didn't know anything, but he kept shouting, he didn't
believe me.
By this time, as there was no food, the children were crying. Then the detective said we must keep the children quiet or they
would burn down the kongsi. All night long we could see outside that the soldiers were lighting fires, which made us very
frightened they would burn down our house.
The next morning, we heard the soldiers tell to come out and the soldiers have prepared some tea, coffee and biscuits for us.
We were hungry, so we ate all the biscuits. Then, about about 8 a.m., the soldiers asked us women to pack all our belongings
and leave the kongsi, as they are going to touch it. The detective allowed me to change my shirt, and I heard my fiancé, who
was with the men on the other side of the kongsi partition, tell me to grab some money we had stashed in a pot - he told me
where to find it.
The soldiers then took us to a lorry and we got on the back. When I was on the lorry, I saw the men coming down from the kongsi.
There was a ladder, which could only take two people at a time. The men were then put into three or four groups and then led
off towards the rubber plantation by the soldiers. Then I heard the gunshots.
I though that the men were gone. I heard shots from five different places. Then the soldiers fired shots at the kongsi, which set
it on fire. We came down to the town in the lorry, and the kids were hungry, but the people in the town gave us some food.
The next day I tried to go back up, but some people from the nearby Malay village said don't - they had seen two truck loads
of soldiers go up to the village. A week later, I went back again. The manager of the estate gave some cloth and sticks to make
stretches so we could collect the bodies. They were still lying where they had fallen.
The soldiers were not right to do what they did. We were not communists, we were innocent people. I want them to pay
compensation. I want the British Government to apologize and to pay some compensation. Of course, I am still angry about this.
We also want to have the truth finally. They owe us that much.
(Tham Yong was talking to Jonathan Gorvett in Ulu Yam Bahru, 30 miles north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.)
https:batangkalimassacre.word.press.com/bbc-video-in-cold-blood/
The book: Slaughter and Deception at Batang Kali by Ian Ward & Norma Miraflor, Mediamasters, Singapore, 2009.
HE WHO LIVES BY THE SWORD SHALL PERISH BY THE SWORD - Jesus Christ of Nazareth in the Holy Scriptures.