Emergency Festival

While Suzan was in neighbouring Singapore birthday-feasting, Malaysia was having an Emergency Festival (By the way, I know I already wished you via sms BUT happy birthday Suzan! Happy things must be celebrated!).

Emergency Festival? Yes, Emergency Festival.

No, not the emergency with doctors, paramedics, nurses, really cool ugly wounds and bandages, ambulances, fire fighters, drippers, morphines...

Emergency as in Darurat. Where there is curfew, food and water ration, Britishs, communists/revolutionists, I shoot you you shoot me, I kill you you kill me... you get the picture. Apparently this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Emergency Period. Seriously if it wasn't for this exhibition, I wouldn't have remembered.


Activities during this Festival include exhibition and walkthrough of events, dramas, documentaries and even an aftershow dance floor called Disco Darurat. The sound of it is odd right? Oh, but they play really cool songs from that era remixed. Man if they play this kind of music in clubs here in KL, I think I'll be there every night.

And I'll be very broke.

And my parents wouldn't be too happy. Haha. I guess they pray really hard. And God is a prayer-answering God.


The festival was held at the building next to Central Market (Or was it Central Market itself?). The bunch of us didn't know such place existed until then. So much for being KL-bred.

The exhibition exposed us to the lifestyle of the people in Malaya back then. Which, of course, you don't learn about in high school Sejarah and it's only small pieces of a bigger picture. You know, I wished that teachers would really make the effort to have these kind of interactive learning instead of spoonfeeding and lecturing us. I can guarantee that I learnt more about Malaysian History in that one night alone than the five years in high school combined together.


These papers lying scattered all over the floor of the exhibition hall were actually examples of flyers the Brits distributed (by flying all over the place and throwing papers off the plane literally) during the period to brainwash the Malayan people, portraying Parti Komunis Malaya as blood-thirsty criminals.

Look at how much paper was used by the Brits back then! Global warming culprits.

OK. Here's the deal. In school, History textbooks taught us that: (1) PKM members were bad people with bad intentions and personal greed; (2) they have no god; and (3) mereka merupakan golongan yang terjerumus ke dalam ajaran sesat.

Now, here's a fresh perspective. A different one. We actually get to listen to the stories from the other side. Yes the very people who were accused of treason to the country - the members of Parti Komunis Malaya. While the Brits and textbooks call them Communists, they call themselves Revolutionists.


Here's a picture of the director of the Revolusi '48 documentary (long hair guy) interviewing a former PKM revolutionist (old man) who selflessly shared his side of the story. The one story which had been hidden from us.

Back then, Malaya was rich with rubber and tin resources. The British brought in plenty of manpower from other places, e.g. India. With greed, comes abuse of power. With abuse of power, comes abuse of rights. With abuse of rights, comes the establishment of PKM by the labourers as a movement against the British colonists and as an association which fights and defends for the rights of the labourers in Malaya.

Unlike popular belief (or rather the belief a particular group of people wants us to believe), PKM was not a Chinese party. Neither was PKM a racial party. They were revolutionists who were fighting for freedom and independence from the Brits.

Oh, and one of the rules of PKM is to respect and not degrade women. Anyone who is found guilty of raping a woman will be shot to death on the spot. Fuiyoh! Good right? Haha.

Anyway, the documentary we watched was just a first draft. Can't wait to see the final version!


The hanging boards are actually pictures of life during the Emergency Period. There was also a picture of the very first Identity Card (modern day MyKad). Do you know that as Malaysians, the only proof of our Malaysian citizenship all around the world is our MyKad? If we lose our MyKad, then that's it lah. Aliens we become.

Oh, and Identity Card was introduced by the Brits during the Emergency Period to identify PKM members from the neutral (or seemed neutral). I think this was taught in high school, but I never got around liking Sejarah. Let alone remember facts. I remember Year 1511 as the year Malacca got colonized by the Portugese because 1511 was the Jaring internet dial-up number back then. Hehehe.

Now I know why I always get headache and fever whenever I had to study Sejarah back in high school. I'm allergic to bullshit. So, food for thought... the Sejarah we learn in school - is it Sejarah or Sastera?