Something to ponder and ponder some more

“UTUSAN ni dah jadi surat khabar Chin Peng” – read a text message sent to me by a friend a day after the CPM leader was cremated. 

 

To this friend of mine, Umno-owned newspaper Utusan Malaysia‘s continuous onslaught against Chin Peng has only succeeded in giving “publicity” to the man branded a “terrorist” by some but hailed a “freedom fighter” by others. 

 

I’ve received many such messages but this one’s “special” because the friend who sent it has a son who is vying for a relatively high post in Umno in the coming party polls.

 

To him, Utusan should just “put a full stop” to all this as the anti-Chin Peng campaign has begun to work against Umno. 

 

Messages received earlier as mentioned, also have the same view with a number of senders saying Umno leaders themselves should just “zipped up” as “the more they talked, the more ridiculous they sound”. We know what has been said and what is still being said. No details needed.

 

In the words of Malaysiakini columnist Mariam Mokhtar: “Chin Peng is having the last laugh from beyond his grave”. With that out of the way, ponder this:

 

 

On June 7, 1974, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Hashim was gunned down by two men in Lorong Raja Chulan Kuala Lumpur in broad daylight.

 

Moments later, his son, Najib, who was a crime reporter with the New Straits Times drove towards Court Hill (where the present Menara Maybank stand) when his NST reporter friend waved frantically at him to stop to inform that a high-ranking police officer had been assassinated further up the road. Upon checking Najib found, to his horror, the officer killed was his father.

 

I’ve read Najib’s writing of his heart-wrenching experience many times in which he also wrote the following:

 

“The two gunmen, according to the official story, were communist hit men.

 

“The duo allegedly responsible for father’s death were eventually caught but only after they had summarily dispatched another high-ranking police officer Tan Sri Khoo Chong Kong, then the chief police officer of Perak.

 

“And while the two men were hanged for the murder of Khoo, they were never tried for the killing of the IGP.”