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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright May 2023
Growing up in the 1950s, my grandparents had many old pictures hung in their living room.
But in the photos, some of the faces were removed by scratching out their images with a pen knife.
The result is only whitish contours of people's heads without faces. How weird they look, I thought.
Out of curiosity, I asked my grandma why some of the images evidently scratched off. She said during the Japanese occupation, the soldiers ordered all villagers to remove images of white men in all photos displayed on their wall or be subjected to severe punishment.
Why would the soldiers do that? I asked.
She said it was a policy that images of white men shouldn't be displayed in all homes then. But why?
Grandma explained slowly on the meaning of war. At the end of her narrative on the evils of war, she concluded by saying it destroys human beings.
It makes you hate each other so much that you can't bear to see pictures of those whom you despise on walls of houses that do not even belong to you.
Recently, Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein commented that it was strange for the PH-led government to hold its National Convention at Dewan Merdeka of World Trade Centre.
While saying that he understood the need for a convention yet he found it strange that it had to be held at the Umno headquarters.
Yes, why at Umno headquarters and not another hall?
In addition, he said what is even more strange is the fact that Umno’s top leadership had disrespected former party leaders by removing their portraits from the walls of that great hall.
Hishamuddin asked, "why (were) the portraits of former Umno leaders who fought for the party and its struggles removed" for the event that he posted on his Instagram account and reported by Sinar Daily.
We are not able to read minds of current Umno leadership. But going by the narrative of my grandma, it's probably hate that had motivated the initiators to remove part of Umno's history hung on its own walls.
If the Japanese could do it during the war, why not the coalition that heads the government of the day do likewise even if they only occupied the hall just for one day!
Anyway, we are glad they removed the portraits and did not resort to defacing faces of the leaders with a pen knife like what happened during the Japanese Occupation.
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