AS we approach another Independence Day, my mind flows back to the sweet memories of the 1960s and early-1970s, when our nation had achieved her freedom from Britain.
Life in the 1960s was simple but tranquil. Everything was laid-back and cheap. From the rivers, you could savour teeming freshwater fish. Whenever it rained, the fish were seen and heard to be “bantering” and swimming in big schools. They came to the shores to frolic, and then, went right into our nets. Though we were poor, the sources of natural food in the village were abundant. In fact, it was a green life, so to speak.
We appreciated such rustic life for we believed it was the labour of our leaders then to ensure this land was free from foreign power. When night fell, silence ruled and all households were huddled in sleep.
But we would not miss listening to our transistor radio for news, for at that time, our security forces were still battling the communist terrorists or CTs. The CTs were everywhere, despite the Emergency being over by 1960. In fact, the threat from the CTs, whose aim was to establish a communist state of Malaya, was at its height at that time.
Being a teenage boy then, I was used to coming across many words and phrases related to our security forces fighting the communists, such as “counter-insurgency warfare”, “booby traps”, “curfew”, “eyes and ears of the government”, “mopping up operations”, “RAS COM”, “Min Yuen”, “Briggs Plan”, etc. News of firefights between our infantry units and the CTs were regularly broadcast on the radio. News from the battlegrounds in Indochina were frequent as well.
When our country was under threat, we were closely united and steadfast. It was more so when the intruders from a nearby country came to invade us under “Ganyang Malaya”. It was an unprecedented resilience that we pieced together in confronting sabre-rattling foreign intruders.
I think these are the values that are still ingrained in the minds of those aged 50 and above, who witnessed how arduous it was for this small nation to be on an even keel.
MAT YASIN YUNUS,KUALA LUMPUR