My dearest Apai Tuai George et All,
I once made a promise to a Malayan Emergency Veteran I would try my level best to get their story published in a UK tabloid.
In for a penny in for a pound? Well, below is a letter I had written and sent off to the Editor of The Daily Telegraph.
Fingers crossed it hits some sort of nerves with them and see the light of day in the letters column.
One wonders the criteria letters must meet to get published!
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Lest We Forget
Sir,
My husband and I recently took our 9-year-old daughter on a dedicated educational trip to the IWM North, Manchester. We did so whilst we holidayed in Lancashire visiting my father-in-law who is in his 100th year. What an impressive building the IWM North is too. But I was most disappointed with what greeted me at The Empire and Commonwealth section. The Asia region was most shocking.
When I read where it said, “Rubber from Malaya (Malaysia) was used to make tyres and dinghies,†I could not help but wonder why there was not more information. My thoughts went directly to post WWII National Service young lads sent to the depths of hostile tropical rainforests to fight Communist Terrorists (CTs) who terrorised and murdered British rubber planters alongside innocent local civilians (Malayan Emergency 1948 – 1960); the same again in the fatal freezing conditions of the Korean War (1950 – 1953) to name just a few. Thinking of all these precious young lives lost in Asian countries (a few too many lying in unmarked graves on foreign soil) during numerous bitter struggles against the communists just left a sour taste in my mouth. I walked away more than a little emotional. The entire experience left me somewhat frayed. One got the distinct impression that only India mattered.
-- Magdelene De Rozario
