ONE of the deadliest uprisings the Malaysian armed forces ever had to quell was the communist insurgency in Sarawak in the 1970s. It marked the darkest day in the history of the 7th Royal Rangers Regiment. 

An ambush on March 26, 1972 along the Lundu-Biawak Road killed 15 of the 20 soldiers who had been ordered to escort a team of army engineers. 

The soldiers were part of a Sungai Petani, Kedah-based regiment sent to Sarawak for a one-year tour of duty in 1971. 

They were posted to the coastal town of Lundu, some 53km from Kuching – a hotbed of communist activity only a few kilometres from the Sarawak-Kalimantan border.

On the morning of that fateful day, the regiment - under the command of Sergeant Basha Sulaiman – received orders to escort welders from an engineering squadron to repair a leaking water tank at a military post at Biawak, some 13km from Lundu.

The journey there was quiet and uneventful.

All hell broke loose on the way back. 

As the convoy passed Kampung Jangkar and travelled a section of the road with high ground on both sides, the communists – estimated to number between 40 and 50 men – opened fire on them with automatic weapons.

The Land Rover at the head of the convoy managed to get away and raced to Kem Titi Akar to report the ambush.

A squadron in a Ferret armoured car rushed to help the ambushed soldiers.

The heavy firepower of the two-man British-made armoured vehicle, armed with a 303 Browning machine gun, managed to break the ambush and forced the enemy to withdraw.

After the smoke had cleared, 15 soldiers, including Sgt Basha, lay dead. Four others were seriously wounded.

A follow-up operation – codenamed Operation Bella – to hunt down the attackers managed to kill 11 and capture two from the enemy’s side. 

The regiment returned to their home base in Sungai Petani in December 1972.

Earlier this year, the army, the Veterans Affairs Department and the Sarawak government erected a memorial to the brave soldiers who died in battle. 

The following names were etched in black granite at the spot where they fell: Sgt Basha, Corporals Mohd Akhir Abd Rahman and Salleh Embong, Lance Corporal Yusyf Ayub and rangers Haris Sekar, Mohamad Nayan, Abdul Razak Deraman, Salmi Ismail, Abdul Talib Sin, Wan Hassan Ideris, Zainal Mohd Noor, Hamid Yatim, Mohd Saad Ahmad, and Ongging Jawi.

Also etched there were the names of the wounded rangers, Abdul Hamid Mohd Saad, Sahar Yahya, Alimin Ibrahim, and Zainuddin Ahmad.

The state’s Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Abdul Karim Hamzah said the memorial would be gazetted as a historical site. 

Young Malaysians, he said, need to know about the blood that was shed and the sacrifices the security forces made to protect the country’s freedom. – July 30, 2023.