KUCHING: Australian veterans recently gathered in Adelaide, South Australia to commemorate Malaya and Borneo Veterans Day to honour their fallen comrades from two military campaigns that are barely known to the general public.
This month, the president and vice-president of the South Australian Branch of the National Malaya Borneo Veterans Association of Australia are visiting Kuching.
The primary purpose of their trip is to conduct reconnaissance and make preparations for a Service of Commemoration which the Australians and New Zealanders plan to hold here in August 2023 – to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the end of the Malayan Emergency in 1960 and the 57th anniversary of the end of the Indonesian Confrontation in 1966.
During the Emergency and Confrontation, 71 Australian servicemen lost their lives.
Fifty of them are still buried in graves overseas – 37 in Malaysia and 13 in Singapore.
In 2011, the Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs designated August 31 (the date of Malayan Independence in 1957) as the official date of commemoration for these two campaigns.
Of the Australians who died during Confrontation, eight died in Sarawak and a further three died after being evacuated from Sarawak.
The 2023 commemoration service will be held at the Sarawak Heroes Memorial Park. Veterans and family members will be in Kuching next year to honour the service and sacrifice of Australian, New Zealander and Commonwealth troops during these Malayan wars, which featured Australian contingents as part of its membership of the British Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve (BCFESR).
The visit this month was made by branch president Major Paul Rosenzweig OAM (ret’d) and his wife Crisel Rosenzweig, together with vice-president Don Cameron and his wife Jenny Cameron.
The party will also take part in various events. On Sept 4, they were feted to a welcoming reception by Lieutenant-General Datuk Steven Mundaw (ret’d) and members of the Sarawak Veterans’ Association.
Today (Sept 9), the party will conduct a special memorial service at the Sarawak Heroes Memorial Park. The service was arranged by the Sarawak Heritage Development Committee.
In this ceremony, a tree will be planted in memory of the late Brian Selby (1945- 2022) who was president of the South Australian branch from 2002 to 2006, and again from 2010 until his passing at home in Adelaide on April 15 2022, at the age of 76.
Selby had visited Kuching in the past, and arranged major veteran reunions and commemoration ceremonies in 2016 and 2019. The party will pay tributes, including one from Brian’s widow Christine Selby.
On Sept 11, the party will visit the Batu Lintang Memorial, to honour the anniversary of the liberation of Batu Lintang POW Camp (Sept 11 1945) and in memory of Brigadier Tom Eastick DSO, Commander Kuching Force, who came from South Australia.
The party will place a tribute and have a tour of the museum. The South Australian branch has adopted a four-pronged approach to commemoration: two of these aspects are ‘Honour the Living’ and ‘Remember the fallen’. In their commemorative events, the Australia and New Zealand contingents of veterans and families honour all those who served, and those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
On Sept 12, the party will be given a tour of the Borneo Cultures Museum by deputy director Dayang Morzanah Awang Haddy.
And the party will travel to SK Serabak in the Bau District on Sept 13 In the branch’s approach to commemoration, two other aspects are ‘Remember Malaysia’ and ‘Look to the future’.
The SA branch of National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association Australia (NMBVAA) has adopted three schools in the areas where Australian troops served during Confrontation. The president and vice-president will pass over a financial donation to each of the schools – SK Serabak, SK Suba Buan and SK Stass.
In this way the branch remembers the support of the Sarawak people in 1965 and 1966.
The party will also make a donation to the Sarawak Tourism Federation for the development of a memorial park in Kampung Gumbang, the first in a series of sites which will comprise the Sarawak Defenders Heritage Trail.
Branch president Major Paul Rosenzweig OAM (ret’d), saw a total of 32 years’ military service in the Australian Army, with service in East Timor and later Timor-Leste, and the Republic of the Philippines.
Rosenzweig is a volunteer author of military history and biography, and in 2009 was made a Fellow of the Military Historical Society of Australia. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2017 for his contributions to the preservation of military history. This is Rosenzweig’s fourth visit to Sarawak.
Don Cameron is a veteran of service in Sarawak in 1965. He joined the Australian Army in 1962, and served as a corporal in three battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment between 1962 and 1968. This included service at Terendak Garrison in Malacca, and on the Thai-Malaysia border.
During Confrontation, Cameron conducted counter-insurgency patrols from a fortified patrol base near Kampung Gumbang. For this service, Cameron received Australian operational service medals and the Pingat Jasa Malaysia. This is his fourth visit to Sarawak.
Although these post-World War 2 conflicts being commemorated are not well known publicly, their place in Australian military history was assured. In 2016, the South Australian branch of NMBVAA installed a commemorative plaque in the Sarawak Heroes Memorial Park. This plaque lists the names of the Australians fallen from the Confrontation period.
The South Australian party thanked the following persons for their support and assistance: Datuk Lim Kian Hock (formerly Heritage adviser, Sarawak Tourism Federation), Datuk Dr Philip Ting AM (Australian honorary consul to Sarawak), Fiona Marcus Raja (Chair, STF Heritage Development Committee) and Lieutenant-General Datuk Steven Mundaw (ret’d).
