Moggie wants memorial built for security forces veterans in Ba Kelalan
KUCHING: Former federal minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Leo Moggie hopes a memorial will be built in Ba Kelalan for security forces veterans such as the Lun Bawang Border Scouts.
He said this is because their contributions to the security of Sarawak deserve to be recognised.
“Previously, there was a plan by the late Penghulu George Sigar Sultan, himself a former border scout inspector, to build a monument at Long Langai village.
“The plan continues even now under Ketua Kampung Matius Padan, who was also a former border scout.
“Their roles and memories deserve to be better recognised,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Moggie, also a former Tenaga Nasional Berhad chairman, believed that their initiatives should be officially endorsed and given appropriate support, adding that a proper memorial should be ready for its expected unveiling on Oct 31 this year.
According to him, it was at Long Langai that renegade Japanese soldiers under Capt Fujino finally agreed to surrender during World War II.
“Emperor Hirohito publicly announced the Japanese surrender on Aug 15, 1945, and the official surrender document was signed on Sept 2.
“However, a large group of more than 600 soldiers in northern Sarawak under Capt Fujino refused to surrender. They moved into the interior and continued to harass the local population,” he said.
According to Moggie, many of the soldiers died either due to starvation or being killed by the local people.
“It was only at the end of October, more than two months after Japanese surrendered, that Capt Fujino and the remainder of his renegade men numbering more than 300 agreed to surrender.”
Moggie said the Japanese soldiers were paraded on the Long Langai field and laid down their weapons on Oct 31, 1945.
“That was the last and largest group of Japanese to surrender to an indigenous force in Borneo, and from what I understand, also in the whole of South East Asia,” he added.
He said during the 1963-1966 Confrontation, the Lun Bawang community, many of them with the Border Scouts and Borneo Interior Force veterans, had similarly played indispensable roles both in ground operations as well as serving as the eyes and ears to the security forces.
Meanwhile, Moggie said Ba Kelalan – like most rural areas – is in need of major infrastructure improvement.
“The people there rely on family-owned diesel set for electricity, and a water supply project is in progress.
“The villagers long for properly sealed road to Lawas or to Bario some 35 kilometres away, and to the Kalimantan Border.
“Clearly, everywhere, when one goes to the rural areas of Sarawak, one hears lament for basic infrastructures.”
He also said those who plan to visit Ba Kelalan for the forthcoming ‘Pesta Beras Adan Ba Kelalan’ in Buduk Nur from April 19-20 may be interested in a snippet of history.
“About 10 minutes’ drive from Buduk Nur is the village of Long Langai where the community wants the memorial for the braves to be constructed,” he said.