1976 INCIDENT UNFORGETTABLE
Retired soldier tells his experience of being attacked by 40 communist terrorists
ANUAR Che Mat, 70, still remembers the day he and his two colleagues were caught in a hail of bullets in 1976. He recalled how his team was pinned down when an estimated 40 communist guerillas began shooting at them.
They were unable to return fire, but managed to sneak away.
Only one colleague had been injured after a bullet hit his arm. Anuar and his other colleague escaped unscathed
Anuar said he and his colleagues were ordered to get water from a river at the base of a hillslope in Lundu, Sarawak, when they were attacked.
“There were 45 of us from Company B of the 10th Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment (RMR). We were ordered to set an ambush in a hilly area while members of the 5th Battalion RMR moved in to track the enemy.
“About 5pm that day, the operation to track the enemy was called off. That was when my two colleagues and I were told to go get some water from the river.”
He said as they approached the river, communist insurgents, who had been hiding in the undergrowth on the hillslopes, opened fire.
“The enemy’s attack was so intense that we could not retaliate. We thought that we would soon be dead, but it was God’s will that we live.”
About 30 minutes later, he said, they heard the sounds of another battle as the guerillas engaged another group of security forces.
“The terrorists were identified as members of the North Kalimantan People’s Guerilla Force, which entered Sarawak after being influenced by the ‘Ganyang Malaysia’ movement launched by the then Indonesian president, Sukarno.”
Anuar said his company, led by a Captain Said, were believed to have killed one of the guerillas, but the corpse was dragged away by his comrades.
Anuar left the service on Aug 2, 1990, but he still has that same sense of patriotism which led him to join the army and fight to keep the nation safe.
“I may be 70, but I am willing to go to war with the terrorists if they are still around today,” he said.
Anuar urged youths not to be blind to history, nor be influenced by certain quarters who were trying to dignify the insurgents.