THEIR husbands were in the limelight but these army wives have their own stories to share.

As they watched their spouses, veteran soldiers and their former comrades recount stories of sacrifice and valour, Jill Tan and Hasna Hashim talked about the days they lived together in army quarters, waiting for their men to return from the frontlines.

“We are Malaysians and this is how it should be,” said Hasna, a retired civil servant as she watched groups of multiracial children running around the Taman Tugu nursery singing patriotic songs last Sunday.

Her husband, as well as Tan’s, are members of the National Patriots Association (Patriot), which held a human library or story-telling session for the public on their experiences serving in the armed forces.

The event was held at a time of polarising public debate over racial issues involving the teaching of khat in vernacular schools and a movement to boycott non-Malay goods and services.

Sporting a green camouflage shirt and tudung for the occasion, Hasna told The Malaysian Insight how disappointed she felt at the way race and religion had changed relationships in the country.

Growing up in the flats behind Pudu Jail, the 71-year-old said she had always non-Malay friends inside the various military camps she lived in.

“We disagreed on many things and argued all the time but we are still good friends and we still meet for lunch,” she said.

The same could not be said about Malaysians on the “outside” as they do not realise how much they needed one another, the mother of two said.

While their husbands fought in the jungles against the communists, Hasna said army wives had to learn to be independent and rely on other army families in the camps.

“We learnt to depend on each other as we needed one another,” said Hasna, who is married to Lt-Col (rtd) Mohd Yusof Abdul Razak.

Yusof was posted in Perak to fight the communists for six years in the 1970s.

Tan, a retired headmistress, recalled being all alone at the Port Dickson military base when her first child was born.

“I was all alone when it was time to have my first child as my husband was serving in Borneo. He wasn’t even here when our first child was born,” said the 70-year-old.

“When it was time, the commanding officer got someone to drive me to the hospital in PD town,” said the former English and home science teacher.

Tan is married to Lt-Col (rtd) Shanan Wee who was patrolling Borneo for nine months at that time.

She said that life in the various army camps taught the wives of different races to rely on one another. All in all, Tan has lived in half a dozen different camps.

“There’s no point in looking at things through racial lens. In the army, we eat and sleep together. And when you’re punished, everyone is punished together, too,” said Tan, who lived in the PD camp for 12 years.

“The families are always there for each other as the husbands are always away. Who else will help us if we don’t help one another?”

From her observations as a teacher, Tan said she felt a “shift” in racial harmony in the 1980s.

Hasna said since then, relations and rhetoric seem to be worse.

“People today are making all sorts of extreme statements,” she said. “Each (racial) group is instilling unjustified fears among their own.”

She was remarking on the recent controversies regarding ICERD, Rome Statute and the teaching of khat in vernacular schools.

Better days

Hasna said more civic consciousness and integration should be taught in schools.

“We have to learn how to accept each other’s different views without being combative about them,” she added.

Tan, who taught for 36 years, felt Malaysians need to learn how to be good citizens and to stop taking sides.

“We can’t avoid it during elections but issues should not be judged on the basis of race and religion alone. They should be seen from the national interests,” said the mother of four.

In the camps or on the battlefield, there is no room for race, Lt-Col (rtd) Ajaya Kumar said at the human library event.

“During operations, we are all brothers in arms as we rely on each other. When a helicopter comes to pick up the wounded during an operation, the pilot doesn’t look to see what race the soldier is.

“He’s just another soldier that needs help. So, it’s hard for us as servicemen to understand why the rest of society is divided on racial issues,” said the former Signal Corps serviceman.

But pessimistically, Ajaya wondered if it was too late for Malaysia to reverse what had already been done.

“Favouritism and arguments over rights and privileges have brought us to where we are today. Is it too late?

“I really don’t know.”

“Is it?” asked Amin Ariffin, 30, who was at the Tugu Negara monument with his wife and three children, a short distance away from the human library event.

“We need to teach the young about the fight against the Chinese communists. They need to understand the country’s history to learn about independence and how we came to be.

“They need to know why we must remain united as Malays,” he said as he headed to Tugu Negara.

The sculpted soldiers on the monument, erected in 1966 to commemorate those who died during the Japanese occupation during World War II and the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960, are of unspecified race.

That fact is lost on families like Amin’s but for the time being, at Patriot’s human library event, the multiracial veterans, their grandchildren and their audience celebrated being Malaysians as they sang the chorus of Ben E. King’s Stand by Me. – September 14, 2019.