“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.”
“Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace,
for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man." “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
Captain Courageous aka Mukhtiar Singh s/o Sodagar Singh by R. Nadeswaran 10th Nov 1985 from the Sunday Mail
Monday, April 04, 2011
Born in India in 1932, he came to Malaya in 1939 to attend school and live with his grandparents, though his parents remained in Punjab. However, his education came to an abrupt end when the Japanese invaded the country in 1941. When the British came back, Mukhtiar was back at school, but not for long either. His uncle who worked as a watchman on Wilkinson Process in Batu Caves told him that the company was looking for another watchman. "You can go to school in the morning," his uncle told him, "and be a watchman at night." So he became a partime watchman and when the Emergency was declared in 1948, he and the five other watchman were recruited and given arms to protect the English owned company. " I pleaded with the police as I did not want to take the job because I wanted to continue my education, but the Kepong OCPD then, an Englishman, told me that the security of the nation was more important than my education. " So there I was, a young man of 16, given a gun and designated Special Constable," he said. Two years later, Mukhtiar received a letter from Punjab that his mother was seriously ill. By the time he got back to his village there, his mother had died. He did not want to remain in India and so two months later he was back in Malaya. "I was cycling along Ipoh Road one day when I was spotted by a Mr. Swan who was then the big man in Wilkinson Process. He wanted me to resume my old job but I refused and insisted I was going back to school. The following day, I was summoned to the OCPD's office where I was told that if I refuse to become a Special Constable, I would be drafted in national service and sent to Kulai for training. So I became a Special Constable again and three years later, the education bug bit me again.
I reported sick regularly in the hope that I would be discharged. I was sent to the hospital where Dr Latiff (the father of the former Datuk Bandar, the late Tan Sri Yaacob) examined me and told my superiors that there was nothing wrong with me. My superiors said I would be put in the guard room if I ever reported sick again," Mukhtiar said with a tinge of mischief in his eye. He accepted the fact that his future was with the police force and learnt to live with it. The following year, he was appointed Temporary Inspector and worked at various police stations. When the emergency ended in 1960, he was still a Temporary Inspector attached to the Bentong police station on a month - to- month basis.
During one of the many anti-terrorist operations, he had come to know one Ungku Nazaruddin who was then the Commanding Officer of the 4th Malay Regiment. By then, the Malaynisation of the army had taken place and the CO had become General Ungku Nazaruddin. Mukhtiar then joined the army as an instructor with the rank of sergeant and in 1966 was commissioned Second Lieutenant. When he retired in 1978 he was holding the rank of Captain.
Although the fight against the terrorists in the dense jungles took place some 30 years ago, Mukhtiar distinctly remembers every moment of his encounters with the terrorists. On one occasion he had to put down his arms and face an armed terrorist just to "show him that I meant every word I said." That was on Jan 2, 1958, when he had shot and injured Yap Keow Sin, a state committee member of the outlawed Communist Party of Malaya.
A chance encounter with a group of CTs in the jungle of Rawang resulted in a gun - battle and Yap who had a $20,000 reward on his head, shot in the arm, retreated to his camp closely pursued by Mukhtiar. The police surrounded the camp and one of them shouted to Yap to surrender. "How can I be sure that I will not be harmed if I surrender," came the voice from the camp. Mukhtiar told him that he would go in unarmed to meet him and he can officially surrender to a police officer.
"I put my gun down and walked towards the camp." Yap gave himself up and said: 'Lu Menang, Saya Kalah'. On another occasion, on Christmas Day in 1955, Mukhtiar was alone on reconnaissance in Sungei Buloh, near Kuala Lumpur, when he found himself confronted by two armed terrorists. He opened fire immediately wounding one, who escaped in the jungle. Seeing the other bring up his gun to fire, Mukhtiar opened fire agin, killing him instantly. Three hours later, the wounded terrorist, CPM district committee member Ho Keng Meng gave himself up to to labourers of Pilmoor Estate. Today,
Mukhtiar is a contented family man with children, but it was different when he married Pritam Kaur in March 1959. Four days before the wedding the headlines of an article in the straits times read: Bandit Fighter weds on Sunday and after the the marriage, the headline read: Police hero married according to sikh rites The guest of honour was none other the then Commissioner of Police Mr CH Fenner, a great honour for a junior police officer whio was forced to put the nation before his education so that citizens like us could continue living in peace and harmony.
Click on clippings to enlarge. More to follow.
At the height of the Emergency, ASP Wong Yoke Chee, saw active duty in the Johore heartland at Chaah and Bekok. Those years 1952-6 were the most intense time when life in the small townships mainly Chinese settlements serving British owned rubber estates saw betrayals, espionage and killings on a regular basis. Wong Yoke Chee was a young bachelor then when he led his Patrol of men, mainly Malay constables on regular alternate daily 'operations' deep into the hills surrounding the villages and railway line and minor roads leading into Labis. On one school holiday trip by rail to see my maternal Grandmother who took charge of my aunty's growing family; my uncle an estate Contractor, I one evening saw a huge commotion near the Police Station. In a place where the best thing one could do is the relish of their kwe teow soup, any out of the ordinary thing draws attention, including me. a 13 yr teenager. What I saw behind the Land Rover were two bloody bullet riddled bodies of communists Chinese the Patrol under Wong's command brought back. Being from K L and ''death''was never presented the way it did, the trauma did not leave me until today. Inspector Wong Yoke Chee retired an ASP. He was a devout Christian and lived his life in total devotion to his family as a single parent; his dear wife having died of an ailment 3 decades ago.
ASP Wong Yoke Chee passed on in 2011 at the age of 84, a Hero to those who know him intimately as his secret of life was his Faith and his belief that God controls his life despite what others say. The foregoing narrative was part of the eulogy I gave at ASP Wong's funeral. He lived by his Jesus who aid "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and to God what is God's'' The Min of Defence knows not what he is talking about. It is bearing false witnesses; itself a big SIN.
God Bless them all. I feel bad when people forget that we are Malaysians first.We have people leading us who have no sense of being Malaysian.That I would say is the problem.
At the height of the Emergency, ASP Wong Yoke Chee, saw active duty in the Johore heartland at Chaah and Bekok. Those years 1952-6 were the most intense time when life in the small townships mainly Chinese settlements serving British owned rubber estates saw betrayals, espionage and killings on a regular basis.
Wong Yoke Chee was a young bachelor then when he led his Patrol of men, mainly Malay constables on regular alternate daily 'operations' deep into the hills surrounding the villages and railway line and minor roads leading into Labis.
On one school holiday trip by rail to see my maternal Grandmother who took charge of my aunty's growing family; my uncle an estate Contractor, I one evening saw a huge commotion near the Police Station. In a place where the best thing one could do is the relish of their kwe teow soup, any out of the ordinary thing draws attention, including me. a 13 yr teenager. What I saw behind the Land Rover were two bloody bullet riddled bodies of communists Chinese the Patrol under Wong's command brought back. Being from K L and ''death''was never presented the way it did, the trauma did not leave me until today.
Inspector Wong Yoke Chee retired an ASP. He was a
devout Christian and lived his life in total devotion to his family as a single parent; his dear wife having died of an ailment 3 decades ago.
ASP Wong Yoke Chee passed on in 2011 at the age of 84, a Hero to those who know him intimately as his secret of life was his Faith and his belief that God controls his life despite what others say.
The foregoing narrative was part of the eulogy I gave at ASP Wong's funeral. He lived by his Jesus who aid "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and to God what is God's''
The Min of Defence knows not what he is talking about. It is bearing false witnesses; itself a big SIN.
Eddie Chong