QR Code Link : Type : article Subject : General Works History General and Old World Main Author : Jonathan Driskell Title : Bukit Kepong: the emergency in mainstream Malaysian cinema

Place of Production : MONASH University Year of Publication : 2025 Web Link : Click to view web link

Abstract :

This chapter examines Jins Shamsuddin’s Bukit Kepong, a film depicting the legendary Bukit Kepong incident that occurred on 23 February 1950 when Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) soldiers lay siege to a police station in Johor. While most of the officers stationed there were eventually killed and the station burnt down, the episode has been hailed as a moment of great courage and sacrifice, with the police preferring to fight to the death rather than surrender. However, the significance of these events was contested in 2011 when Mat Sabu, then Deputy President of the opposition party PAS, commented that the true heroes were the Malay soldiers involved in the attack and not the police, as the soldiers were freedom fighters seeking to bring an end to British colonial rule. While this statement generated major public and political backlash, which even led to Sabu’s house being targeted by arsonists and him being taken to court, it demonstrated how the Bukit Kepong incident has served as a trigger for broader debates relating to the Malayan Emergency and Malaysia’s colonial past. This chapter examines these issues by exploring how the historical event is represented in Bukit Kepong, an acclaimed film that brought together the largest ever budget (at the time) for a Malaysian film and one of the nation’s biggest stars, Jins Shamsuddin, who also served as director. The chapter considers how the film uses docudrama conventions to create a seemingly factual presentation of the events; its portrayal of the MNLA, and how this compared with depictions of them in earlier productions; and how the film was shaped by the nation’s race politics. In doing so, it investigates what Bukit Kepong’s representation of this event can tell us about the Malayan Emergency and its continuing significance in Malaysian politics and society into the present day.

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