KUALA LUMPUR: Sybil Kathigasu’s story is one that should be studied by everyone, says filmmaker Bernard Chauly.
“Hers is a story that should not just be studied by historians but by everyone at different levels; moral studies, Malaysian studies and even literature to an extent,” he said on BFM’s Evening Edition, recently.
The interview comes on the heels of a series of New Straits Times reports on the subject of Sybil and how she should be commemorated.
He said as most historic figures had been remembered for signing declarations or for being part of turning points, Sybil may have been left out as she may have not changed the course of history, but stressed that she was nevertheless a civilian hero.
Chauly wrote and directed Apa Dosaku, an eight part biopic on Sybil’s life. The wartime nurse was played by her grandniece Elaine Daly.
Sybil died in 1948 in the United Kingdom from injuries sustained during her time in Batu Gajah prison, where she was tortured by Japanese soldiers for aiding resistance soldiers who fought against the occupation of Malaya.
Chauly further said that Sybil’s memoir No Dram of Mercy should also be used as a resource for study.
“In every war especially World War 1 and World War 2, the cultures and narratives which were written down tend to have a greater presence in having their narrative heard. We (Malaysia) did not have enough because ours was more oral-based (retelling).”
“But Sybil’s was one of the rare memoirs which was written down. The reason we know the story today is because it was written and published while factoring in the conditions of war” he told talkshow host Umapagan Ampikaipakan.
Chauly, who was introduced to Sybil by his sister who gave him a photocopy of the book in his mid 20s, said it was so absorbing that he completed it in one sitting.
He further said Sybil’s indomitable spirit and humanity had to be understood in the context of the people around her.
Chauly drew on how she was severely beaten and forced to watch her own daughter strapped to a tree while a soldier threatened to set the child on fire.
He said that despite it all, Sybil refused to yield information about those she had helped.
The discussion also led to how Sybil’s story could be taught.
For starters, the fighters in the hills that Sybil helped rally under the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army and were later deemed communists.
“It’s a very nuanced and complex history. It’s not them or us or about the Eurasians and Chinese against everyone else. Everyone (every community) had a different experience with the British and the Japanese based on their experience during colonial rule. Even among the Eurasians who had a raw deal during the occupation due to their association with the Westerners, there were different classes who were treated differently.
“Things were also far more complex than enemies and heroes.”
“It is really fascinating to go back and understand the historiographies like that because a lot of the fragmentation and the division that we still have now stems from there,” he said.
Chauly added that Malaysia did not know how to teach such stories because as it did not know how to deal with the transcultural complexities within them.
He however said that Malaysians “had to keep talking and debating on the subject”.
This, Chauly said is because the nation’s complex history was the very thing that had to be regarded as its strength.
“The takeaway from studying this is similar to making a period show which looks into the past to understand the contemporary.”
Sybil and her husband Dr Abdon Clement Kathigasu, Sybil operated a clinic in the small town of Papan, on the outskirts of Ipoh, Perak, where they covertly supplied medicine, medical services and refuge to resistance fighters for years during World War 2 until their capture in 1943.
They also covertly shared information gleaned from BBC broadcasts on banned shortwave radio sets.
Time magazine, in 1948 also referred to Sybil as the “Edith of Malaya”
after Edith Cavell, a British nurse who was executed by a firing squad for aiding the escape of Allied soldiers during World War 1.
She is also the only Malaysian woman to receive the British Crown’s George Medal for courage.
A petition was als been registered on change.org, following a New Straits Times article to include her story in history textbooks.
However Deputy Education Minister Datuk P. Kamalanathan said the ministry needed a formal proposal to seriously consider the suggestion.
Professor Datuk Dr Teo Kok Seong from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia also said that he would champion the cause by taking on the bureaucratic leg work.