War of the Running Cats

Once upon an afternoon, my friend and I were walking along a row of kiosks near the entrance of the Bukit Bintang Plaza. We had just finished our lunch and the taste of the roasted chicken flesh still lingered stubbornly on the tastebuds. Under such circumstances, the next most logical thing to do was to head for the rooftop stalls where another friend, a Mamak who wore a silver ring with a huge gemstone served excellent teh tarik.
As we walked towards elevator entrance, a tall man with a rather dark complexion appeared among the small crowd of lunchtime shoppers and greeted my friend.
He had a New York Yankees baseball cap on his head but the rest of the dressing reminded me of the members of the some Malay youth movement – a gaudy-coloured printed batik shirt and a pair of white pants which could be easily spotted even from miles away.

The warm greetings and the casual hugging confirmed that they both were good friends. The man with the baseball cap spoke with a heavy and very pronounced Terengganu accent. His swollen cheeks indicated he was sustaining a maximum amount of air in his mouth, like he was blowing a tuba when he pronounced “pok” as he explained he was coming from the “epok” (airport). And my friend, a senior and veteran political writer, responded with equally matching accent.
He was introduced to me as Mat Tukul. Naturally I did not have the slightest idea as to why he had such a strange and unusual name. The name of Mat Perang (an early Johor UMNO personality) is about the strangest I had ever came across.
We moved a few paces away from the elevator entrance. A single beam of light from a high-intensity spotlight in the adjacent shop reflected upon his shiny pair of black leather shoes. A look-alike Tag Heuer chronograph with a steel strap glittered intermittently as he moved his right hand up and down wiping sweat from his face. “Ana jalang kaki dari Pudu Raya. Ana talipong office, khabor anta mari sini,” he explained.
Although a hammer is part of his name, he did not look like someone who earns a living driving nails into wooden planks. But of course I did not ask.
“I’ve been desperately trying to get you.”
“Oh yeah? What’s up?” asked the writer.
“I have a big problem.”
“How big?
“Very big,” Mat Tukul answered as his right hand continue to wipe the sweat which was still trickling down his face. Occassionally the swollen cheeks appeared as he pronounced some syllables from some words.
“Don’t you think Saddam Hussein has bigger problems,” asked the writer.
“I don’t have any office anymore. They chased me out after I’ve failed to pay seven months rentals. It is difficult to do my work now,” Mat Tukul replied.
To this statement of self-sympathy, the writer replied, “The Prophet (pbuh) did bigger and more important jobs and had never had any office.”
Notwithstanding those words, the writer later extended some financial help to ease Mat Tukul’s problems.
Alright. All these seem to be a story on its own. So where are the running cats.
The truth is, I really didn’t know what to write for this very posting. Reading through u lee’s profile I noticed he has read Nevil Shute’s A Town Like Alice and possibly all books written by Alistair McLean (that took my mind momentarily to Where Eagles Dare and Ice Station Zebra). But reading the list further, he has also read Noel Barber’s War of the Running Dogs.
That Barber’s book naturally reminded us of the Emergency which in turn gave birth to a piece of legislation called the Emergency Regulation Ordinance 1948. The British called those Communist guerillas as the running dogs.
But in 1960, three years after Merdeka, there didn’t seem to be too many dogs to chase anymore. However some domestic cats who had had ealier lent their support to the formation of UMNO in 1946 were perceived by the then Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman as cats with the souls of dogs. Among them were Ahmad Boestaman, Ishak Hj Muhammad aka Pak Sako, Dr. Burhanuddin Helmi and many others. It was for this very reason the ordinance of 1948 was repealed and gave birth to the now infamous Internal Security Act 1960.
Today, the war of the running dogs is history especially after the signing of the Haatyai Treaty in 1998 which saw the official dissolution of the Malayan Communist Party. What is still left now is the war of the running cats.
In the British colonial days as well as after the Japanese Occupation it was important for the British to protect our country is their primary source of their foreign exchange revenue. Those cats were detained because they thought Merdeka would be meaningless if foreigners were still having the ultimate control on our economy. But Tunku didn’t like it.
In a letter to the writer whom I have mentioned earlier, Tunku admitted that we the Malays are cats and they, the British are tigers.
The British have gone for good now but the war of the running cats does not seem to be over.
Admittedly, in the world of this cute felines, there are bad cats and good cats. The only problem is that those bad cats want you to think them as good, clever and caring cats by victimizing us, the ordinary cats and certain cats which they think are dangerous cats. But we think, all these bad cats wish to have all the Friskies, Whiskas, Science Diet and all the expensive cats food for themselves leaving the fish bones and sardine gravy for the good cats.