Semasa melawat Muzium Angkatan Tentera di Port Dickson pada 17 Ogos 2008 (sila lihat pos saya Mencari Harta Karun -Bahagian 2) saya ternampak beberapa bahan atau benda yang pernah berada dalam genggaman saya lebih dari lima puluh tahun yang lalu. Bahan itu ialah apa yang disebut oleh orang kampung saya di masa itu sebagai surat terbang atau sebutan sebenarnya 'sughat toghobang'.
Surat terbang sekarang bermaksud surat hasutan yang dihantar tanpa tandatangan. Tujuannya ialah untuk menjatuhkan sesaorang. Sama ada isinya benar atau tidak adalah perkara lain. Yang tentunya ia tidak boleh diterima di mahkamah sebagai bahan bukti kerana tidak ditandatangan. Surat terbang yang saya ingin ceritakan ialah surat yang dijatuhkan dari kapal terbang.
Saya dilahirkan semasa Zaman Darurat di Persekutuan Tanah Melayu. Anak-anak muda yang ingin tahu apakah yang dimaksudkan dengan Zaman Darurat kenalah baca buku sejarah. Secara ringkasnya saya boleh nyatakan itulah masa dimana terdapat anggota komunis yang masih aktif dalam negara kita. Anggota komunis ini ialah ahli Partai Komunis Malaya (PKM) yang diharamkan dahulu, sekarang dan mungkin selamanya. Perlu diingat semasa negara kita Merdeka pada 31 Ogos 1957 ia masih berada dalam Zaman Darurat.
Semasa Darurat ini definasi Kawasan Putih dan Kawasan Hitam digunakan. Kawasan Putih bermakna kawasan itu bebas dari anggota Komunis yang aktif sedangkan kawasan dimana anggota Komunis masih aktif disebut Kawasan Hitam. Daerah Jelebu di Negeri Sembilan adalah antara Kawasan Hitam di masa itu.
Saya masih ingat tentang kehadiran Komunis di sekeliling saya kerana bas yang melalui Jelebu diekori oleh kenderaan tentera bersenjata. Bila bas berhenti 'keto soja' ini pun berhenti. Walau bagaimana pun saya tidak pernah terserempak dengan mana-mana anggota komunis, hidup atau mati.
Semasa umur saya diantara lima hingga sembilan tahun lebih kurang dua kali dalam seminggu kapal terbang yang kami gelarkan 'kapal terbang patung' akan berlegar di udara kampung kami. Kami panggil 'kapal terbang patung' kerana bentuknya serupa dengan serangga yang terbang itu. Setahu saya sekarang pesawat jenis ini hanya digunakan untuk menabur baja tanaman di Amerika Syarikat.
Setelah belegar beberapa minit 'patung' ini akan menggugurkan bahan merupai titik-titik hitam. Titik-titik ini akan membesar dan lama kelamaan jelaskan apa yang digugurkan. Apa yang digugurkan ialah surat terbang tadi. Surat terbang ini akan jatuh ke atas atap rumah, sawah padi, dihanyutkan air sungai dan kadang-kadang jatuh di atas padang sekolah. Biasanya ia berterbangan, tetapi ada juga yang tidak terpisah. Dalam hal ini ia jatuh menjunam dalam tindihan setinggi sehingga satu kaki.
Apa yang terdapat dalam surat terbang ini? Bukan hasutan atau fitnah seperti sekarang, tetapi risalah rayuan dari Kerajaan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu kepada anggota PKM supaya menyerah diri. Untuk lebih menarik risalah ini dipenuhi dengan lukisan katun. Dari katun ini kami fahamlah sedikit apa maksudnya.
Agaknya sistem lojistik tentera di masa itu belum sempurna lagi. Sebab pertama ialah setahu saya tiada seorang pun orang kampung saya anggota atau penyokong PKM. Kedua ialah risalah yang digugurkan berbahasa Cina sepenuhnya sedangkan penduduk kampung saya semuanya berbangsa Melayu.
Jadi apakah yang saya buat dengan surat terbang ini? Saya, adik beradik dan kawan-kawan memungut dan mengumpulnya. Kami jadikan kulit buku sekolah, kami lipat menjadi kapal terbang dan ada juga yang dijadikan layang-layang. Malangnya tidak ada lagi surat terbang yang saya kumpulkan dulu masih tinggal sekarang.
Surat terbang itulah yang saya yang saya lihat dipamerkan di Muzium Angkatan Tentera di Port Dickson semasa saya menyerta acara mencari harta karun pada 17 Ogos 2008. Syabas ATM kerana masih menyimpan bahan bersejarah ini!
Flying letters
When I visited the Armed Forces Museum in Port Dickson during the Treasure Hunt event I participated on 17th August 2008 I saw something the like were in my hands more than fifty years ago. The thing was what my village folks referred to as flying letters.
Nowadays flying letters are also known as poison letters. They are normally unsigned and meant to discredit someone. Whether they are true or not is a different matter. Nevertheless they cannot be produced as evidence in court since they are not signed. Flying letters I am about to tell are leaflets dropped from aeroplanes.
I was born during the Malayan Emergency. Those youngsters who do not know what the Emergency means better look at your history books. Briefly I can tell that it was the time when communist terrorists who were members of the banned Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) were still active in this country. It is interesting to note that when our country acheived Independence on 31st August 1957 we were still under the Emergency.
During the Emergency the terms White Area and Black Area were used. White Area meant the area was free of communist terrorist activites while Black Area meant otherwise. The Jelebu District was one of the Black Areas then.
I was made aware of the communists presence when the buses plying Jelebu were escorted by armed army vehicles. Nevertheless I have never seen any communist terrorist, dead or alive.
When I was between five and nine about twice a week an aeroplane which we called a 'dragon-fly' would circle my village. We called it 'dragon-fly' because it looked exactly like the flying insects. As far as I know 'dragon-flies' are only used nowadays as to spray manure to American farms.
After circling for a few minute the 'dragon-fly' would drop something whick looked like black dots initially. These dots would eventually become bigger showing exactly what they were? What were being dropped were leaflets that fell on our houses' roofs, rice fields, floated downstream on the river and sometimes they fell on the school field. Normally they fell singly but there were times when a lump of up to one foot high just dropped with a thud.
What are found on these flying letters? Not slander and bullshit like nowadays but appeals by the Malayan Government to the communists to surrender themselves. To add substance to the leaflets cartoons were drawn. So from the cartoons we understood a bit what the sender meant.
Maybe then the army logistics were not precise. Firstly as far as I know nobody in my village was a CPM member or supporter. Secondly the leaflts were all in Chinese when everybody in my village is a Malay.
So what we did to the flying letters? Me, my siblings and my friends simply collected and kept them. We made them our book covers, we made paper aeroplanes and we turned them into kites. Unfortunately none of my collection remains.
These flying letters are the one I saw being displayed in the Army Museum, Port Dickson when I visited it as part of the treasure hunt event I participated on 17th August 2008. Thanks to the Malaysian Armed Forces for keeping these historical documents in good shape!.
1 comment:
Your story bring back some old memories. I used to see those flying letters being dropped from the sky at one time. My dad was a policeman based at Sauk police station, a cowboy town located betwen Kuala Kangsar and Lenggong. The surrounding areas was infested with bandits (communist terrorists). I used to see millitary personnels stopping at the police station before they went into the jungles to hunt those bandits. Some time they came back with dead bodies. I was too young to understand what went on but it was fun to see those flier dropping from sky. When the wind blew in our direction our compund would be filled by these fliers. The older children would be asked to help clearing the areas and rewarded with few cents for their effort. Not long after that my dad was transferred to Kuala Kangsar.
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