Saturday November 24, 2007
One moment in time
By EMMELINE TAN
The story of a Kelantanese rebel who fought against the British comes alive in the Tok Janggut Trail.
A declaration of jihad (holy war), an insurrection against foreign invaders, the death of a rebel leader and the parade of his corpse before it was hung upside-down in public as a warning – this is the story of Kelantan’s Tok Janggut.
Arguably the first person to revolt against the British in the Malay Peninsula back in the early 1900s, Tok Janggut did in a way anticipate Aug 31, 1957.
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Resting place: A monument erected in honour of Tok Janggut beside Sungai Semarak, Pasir Puteh. |
But a recent media tour organised by Tourism Malaysia to the places where Tok Janggut made history, along with an interesting lecture by an impassioned Kelantan–born historian, changed all that.
Born in 1850 as Mat Hassan bin Panglima Munas, Tok Janggut became radicalised when he went to Mecca to perform the haj. While there, he studied religion and politics and was influenced by the teachings of one Syeikh Ahmad al-Fatani, so much so that the Mat Hassan who went to Mecca was not the same person who returned.
It was in Mecca that Mat Hassan started keeping a beard and earned the moniker Tok Janggut (“the Bearded One”).
All this happened against the backdrop of pre-World War I days, when the political air in the Middle East was stirring.
The British, French and Russians were then targeting the Turkish Empire, which had allied itself with the Germans. When the Islamic power issued a fatwa jihad against its enemies, word spread far and wide, even to this corner of Asia.
To ensure that Kelantanese did not wage war on it, the British pressed the Sultan of Kelantan to issue a statement saying that Kelantan was behind the British in the matter and that anyone found to be supporting the Turks would be arrested and punished.
This did not deter Tok Janggut.
The British were at the time collecting taxes on agricultural produce like coconuts, fruits, and betel leaves, and this did not go down well with the locals. They turned to Tok Janggut in their disgruntlement, and the Bearded One exhorted them to, “Pay no taxes”.
The financial records from the Pasir Puteh district office from that period show revenue decreasing tremendously. Tok Janggut also took to declaring independence for the Pasir Puteh district, naming himself the prime minister.
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Fallen hero: The serene countryside where Tok Janggut was shot dead in Kampung Dalam Pupuh, Jeram, Pasir Puteh. |
After an initial scrimmage with Tok Janggut in April 1915, in which a local police sergeant was killed, the British called in help from Singapore.
They considered Tok Janggut’s rebellion to be a serious uprising and did not want it spread to the rest of the East Coast.Not only did the British put Tok Janggut and his followers on the “Most Wanted List”, they also burned his house down.
The insurrection did not last long.
On the fateful day of May 24, 1915, Tok Janggut was shot dead by a British volunteer sharpshooter during a surprise attack by the British at Kampung Dalam Pupuh (now know as Kampung Pintu Pos) in Jeram, Pasir Puteh, where the rebels were hiding.
Two of his followers, Tok Abas and Tok Husin, were also killed in the attack.
As a show of force, and to humiliate the Kelantanese, the British paraded Tok Janggut’s body around Kota Baru, and then strung it upside-down in Padang Bank (now known as Padang Merdeka) just in front of the palace.
On the advice of the British, the Sultan declared him a traitor.
Hanging Tok Janggut’s corpse upside-down was the ultimate humiliation, said Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia lecturer Prof Nik Anuar Nik Mahmud, who wrote Tok Janggut: Pejuang atau Penderhaka (Revolutionary or Traitor).
“It is wrong from the aspects of both Islam and war ethics to hang a dead body upside-down. It is an insult to the body. A British officer snapped a picture but the photograph was banned and ordered to be destroyed,” said Prof Nik Anuar.
However, the photo was not destroyed, and the officer who took it gave it upon retirement to a newspaper in England.
Prof Nik Anuar traced it to the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
“Some say the body isn’t really that of Tok Janggut as it is dark-complexioned and doesn’t look like a Malay. In fact, it looks like a bearded Afghani! But one must remember that many Kelantanese are of mixed blood,” he said.
Tok Janggut’s body was taken down by the locals and buried less than 2km away across Sungai Kelantan. We had to take a long circuitous route over the river to get to the grave, inconspicuously located in Kampung Pasir Pekan.
It was a simple grave, fenced up and covered with a tiled roof.
The faint smell of goats hung about the grave. A short drive away is the riverbank, from which one can just barely see a red Kelantan flag at Padang Merdeka, marking the spot where Tok Janggut was hung.
The gravesite was actually a jungle area at the time, not a burial ground. The body was, in essence, just dumped here by people who feraed being associated with him.
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Close ties: Prof Nik Anuar Nik Mahmud (right) and his great–granduncle Yatim Awang, 93 |
A cow under a shed looked on mournfully as we intruded upon the resting place of the two dead men. Prof Nik Anuar’s own great granduncle, Yatim Awang, was arrested on suspicion of aiding Tok Janggut, when in fact he was at the wrong place at the right time.
His house was just nearby.
“My father was imprisoned in Singapore and died there when I was very young,” said Yatim, 93, who still lives in the same house located between the battle scene and the unmarked graves. Today, there is not much that reminds the people of Jeram of their hero.
A school there is named after him and there is a forlorn monument built by the Pasir Puteh district council beside Sungai Semarak in Pasir Puteh town.
A keris, a few spears and tengkolok (head gear), as well as a composite of two photographs, are the only clues as to what the monument is about. The enlarged image of Tok Janggut’s corpse at the monument is quite grisly.
Thanks to the tour, Tok Janggut is now to me a real living figure, not some obscure name from my old history books.
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