A GROUP of Sarawak political activists have declared Hari Kebangsaan tomorrow to be a day of remembrance for the men who died fighting the communists in the country.

The group made up of members of Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspiration (Sapa), Sarawak Liberation Movement and Parti Bumi Kemyalang (PBK) will observe the first Remembrance Day on August 31, dedicated to the memory of the Iban trackers in British military service and the Sarawak Rangers who made the ultimate sacrifice for an independent Malaysia.

“Without the Sarawak soldiers’ assistance, I don’t think Malaya could have achieved independence quite so fast,” PBK president Voon Lee Shan said in a media conference today.

The native trackers and Sarawak Rangers fought alongside Commonwealth army units to quell the communist insurgency on the peninsula.

Some two dozen were killed and were buried where they fell, including by the roadsides.

Voon said the activists wished to remember the soldiers, whom they said had never been accorded the respect and honour that they deserved during the Merdeka celebrations each year.

“They didn’t appreciate the lives of our soldiers who had died in the quest of peace for Malaya. Many who died were left forgotten,” Voon, a former police inspector, said.

Voon was alluding to the 22 men who were buried where they were killed on the peninsula and in Singapore, and whose remains were only brought home to Sarawak in 2011 under a special repatriation programme called Operation Mai Pulai, meaning “bring home” in Iban.

Most were reinterred at the Heroes Mausoleum in Kuching.

Sapa president Dominique Ng, who was present at the press conference, took issue with the “continual and wrong celebration of August 31 as the National Day of Malaysia.

“Tomorrow Malaysia is again celebrating Malaysia’s so-called National Day, its 62nd.

“This is sad because nothing could be further from the truth. Tomorrow is not Malaysia’s real national day, for the actual day Malaysia became the nation called the Federation of Malaysia was September 16,1963.

“Tomorrow is actually only Merdeka Day, or the day Malaya gained its independence, on August 31,1957.”

The former lawmaker called for an end to the disinformation campaign and urged Putrajaya and the Sarawak government “to give due respect to the true history of Malaysia and to celebrate the actual days correctly so that our people, especially the children are told the truth and can give those dates the real honour they deserve”.

Ng said to continue to call August 31 the national day is to continue to insult Sarawak, by ignoring the role and contributions of the people of the state.

Ng played a key part in getting Malaysia Day officially recognised by the federal government. From 2005 to 2013, which was the 50th Year of Malaysia, he and his family and a handful of friends had faithfully marked September 16 each year by raising the Malaysia and Sarawak flags at Central Padang.

“I hereby call upon the governments of Malaysia and Sarawak to give full recognition to the following dates (of the states’) Independence Day: August 31, 1957 for Malaya; August 31, 1963 for Sabah; and July 22, 1963 for Sarawak.” – August 30, 2019.