Who was Tok Janggut fighting?

SINCE today is such an auspi- rebels had ever invoked Islam- cious day that will be known ic sentiments. throughout history as The The reluctance of local, Third Day After The Wedding, principally Malay Muslim, I will take a break from the scholars to examine the an- usual format of this column to ti-feudalist nature of Tok talk about a book. Janggut's rebellion can be at- Yes, a book! If the results of a tributed to the sacrosanct im- recent survey are to be be- age that our rulers enjoyed lieved, then the average until the landmark 1993 con- Malaysian reads only two stitutional amendment that books a year. (But we appar- removed then immunity from ently read and respond to criminal charges. So the earli- many surveys.) est folk accounts of the rebel- I am only halfway through lion could be seen as running this book I am about to dis- counter to both the British and cuss, so if I were an average feudalMalay establishments. Malaysian then I would have National Laureate S. Oth- fulfilled 25 per cent of my an- man Kelantan also narrates nual quota already. how the story of Tok Janggut The book is a new one, To' was such a controversial one Janggut: Legends, Histories decades after the incident that and Perceptions of the 1915 a play that he wrote about it Rebellion in Kelantan by was not allowed to be staged in Cheah Boon Kheng, the re- his native State. tired Professor of History of Cheah is interested not only Universiti Sains Malaysia. It is in what happened but why dif- published by the National Uni- ferent accounts have versity of Singapore, which emerged. Not to descend into a might explain its rather fright- post-modern relativist mush ening price: RM75 for a slim but to respect and gently paperback, and it doesn't even probe the social context in come with colour photographs which each contingent version or a CD-Rom! came to flourish. I have never met Cheah al- Reading his book made His- though I have read many arti- tory (a subject we all hated in cles by him. I tried to interview school, of course) so much him last year for a documen- more interesting. I couldn't tary. He politely but firmly de- help thinking things like: Of clined. The fact that he the thousands of people who seemed publicity-shy in an era marched against the new where everyone and his ex-fi- British-imposed land taxes, ancee want to demand their how many had land to be 15 minutes of karaoke time taxed to begin with? was, of course, a source of And how many were doing wonder — and some irrita- the bidding of the gentry, most tion. "Doesn't he want to be fa- The body of the man believed to be Tok Janggut was hung upside down by the British. — NST file picture of whom would not have to pay mous?" I wondered. The doc- for their fiscal dissatisfaction umentary ended up getting made by Tok Janggut and his public for thousands to see. from people in the area. ordered killed and the cycle of in blood? How complicit was banned and lots of attention, followers against authority, There are British photographs Interestingly enough, the vengeance continued. the feudal elite in crushing the but that's a different story. and troops had to be dis- of a corpse displayed in such a earliest folk accounts have it It is a thrilling story that is scattered and sporadic an- Anyway, his new book is patched from Singapore to manner; it is most likely Tok that the rebellion was, at least also "a subtle critique against ti-British protests that erupted about Tok Janggut, the Kelan- quell the situation. Janggut, although the photos in part, aimed at the Kelantan Malay feudal society and its in colonial Malaya throughout tanese man who has been the Was his revolt a simple were uncaptioned when un- Sultan and aristocracy who values". the early 20th century? Do we subject of many legends. protest against new systems of earthed in libraries. Although were perceived to have sold A subsequent revision of the not find it now ironic that ele- For starters, he was sup- taxation or could it be read as most accounts have the corpse out the interests of the locals to book just two years later was ments of the feudal elite would posed to be kebal (invulnera- an early form of anti-colonial displayed for an hour in one the newly-established colonial refitted Riwayat Hidup To' then be considered as symbols ble), a belief somewhat re- uprising? location, other accounts have power. Janggut dan Peperangannya of resistance when it suited vised when British-employed Did he initially get the tacit him taken to two places or The title of the 1955 book by diKelantan: them? forces managed to gun him approval of the Kelantan Sul- hanged for three days. the Kelantan writer Yahya Ab- This version, however, elim- It would be a boring country down in Pasir Putih. tan, whose kin had to pay tax- So there you have it. A rela- dullah is, quite tellingly, inates the anti-feudalist cri- whose history can be told in a Although the bare facts of es for the first time, and was tively isolated incident in the Peperangan To' Janggut, atau tique of Tok Janggut's derhaka linear and unambiguous fash- his rebellion seem to be a mat- this approval revoked for rea- annals of early British occupa- Balasan Derhaka. felling be- or lese-majeste. There is no ion. Although some recent ter of public record, there are sons of political convenience? tion has gripped the imagina- cause derhaka denotes rebel- criticism of the Sultan or aris- events may lead us to despair still contesting accounts as to Did the earlier murder of bis tion of successive story-tellers, lion against the Sultan; rebel- tocracy. It starts the process of at the hegemonic tendencies why he did what he did. father and elder brother by lo- although the reasons for this lion against the British would recasting Tok Janggut. as an of national historiography, we Kelantan in 1915 had only cals connected with State no- endurance shifts in tune with not require such a word. anti-British proto-nationalist, can take solace in the fact that been under the British for a bility fuel his wrath? And did contemporary concerns. His- This book has it that Tok and this is the version that is things don't have to be boring. few short years. To the locals, any of this have to do with Ji- tory is only useful when it is in Janggut's father, Panglima continually retold in history Although Malaysians don't "foreigners" would include had (holy war) in support of the present tense. Monas, raped his master's books. like to read, so many of our not only the British but Malays Turkey during World War Cheah analyses not only of- concubine because this lord The more recent historical multiple histories are in print, from other States, so strong One? ficial British documents and had ignored appeals to avenge dissertations even claim he is waiting to be discovered. So to was the sense of regional iden- The gruesome climax of his newspaper accounts but the murder of his son (Tok a jihad warrior expressing celebrate your sense of Inde- tity. revolt: Tok Janggut was killed Malay books that have been Janggut's brother) at the solidarity with Turkey, then in pendence, increase your read- In April and May of that and his corpse hanged upside written on the incident, as well hands of a retainer of the Sul- the midst of WW1, although ing to three books a year. year, several attacks were down and displayed to the as Kelantanese oral histories tan. Panglima Monas was then there is no evidence that the And make this one of them.