Kuala Lampur, July 26 -- Few characters in Malaysian cinema evoke as much contempt as Buang in P. Ramlee's classic Sarjan Hassan. He is remembered as the collaborator who sided with the Japanese occupation during one of the darkest chapters in Malaya's history.

Over the decades, Buang has often been portrayed as the archetype of the Malay traitor - a man who betrayed his own race.

Yet that interpretation, while understandable, is incomplete.

Buang did not merely betray the Malays. He betrayed everyone who lived under occupation. His treachery was directed not at one ethnic community but at society itself. His loyalty was transferred from his own people to an occupying force that ruled through fear, violence and coercion.

In doing so, ...