RECLAIMING NATIONAL BELONGING: THE POLITICS OF WORLD WAR TWO COMMEMORATION IN WEST MALAYSIA
申索国家的归属：西马二战纪念活动的政治性解读

Helen TING Mu Hung 陈穆红
IKMAS, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

This article examines the dynamics generated by two different World War Two commemorative initiatives of the Chinese Malaysian community between the mid-1990s and 2007 in the production, revival and contestation of the historical memory of the Japanese invasion and occupation of peninsular Malaysia under the shadow of the Malay-dominated, anti-Communist official historical narratives. At the core of the contention was due recognition of the traumatic historical experience of the community and the anti-Japanese resistance role played by the Communist-led and Chinese dominated Malayan Peoples’ Anti-Japanese Army. The Chinese community leaders and the left-wing social groups positioned their historical war experience of trauma and struggle as constitutive of the nation-building history of the country, for which they deserved a legitimate place in the memory of the nation. A discursive analysis of the verbal skirmishes over these commemorative activities unravels how these contestations over historical memories and their interpretation may be understood in the context of ethnic politics of national identity.

Keywords: politics of commemoration, ethnic politics, national identity, historical memory, Malayan Communist Party (MCP), Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA)

摘要

马来西亚华社在1990年代中期开始举办两种纪念二战历史的活动。本文解析这两种不同的纪念模式在马来人支配的反共官方历史论述的阴影下，对日本入侵与占领马来半岛时期的历史记忆之生产、复原与争端的动态过程。 争论的核心是承认当时华社在二战历史中的创伤以及肯定以华人为主的共产党所领导的人民抗日军对抗日军的角色。华社领袖和左翼社会团体将他们在战争历史经验中的创伤与奋斗过程定位为国族建构历史的一部分，故此理应让他们在国家历史记忆中占有合法性的地位。对纪念活动掀起的冲突与舌战所做出的证论式分析，揭示了这些历史记忆的争议与谊释可以从族群政治化的国家认同脉络下去理解。

关键词：纪念的政治性、族群政治、国族认同、历史记忆、马来亚共产党、马来亚人民抗日军

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