Nobody’s Hero?

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For over 30 years, a former Sarawak Ranger has been suffering in silence from an injury sustained during an ambush by communist terrorists during the insurgency years. He feels let down by the authorities for overlooking his plight, and wonders why people like him are not given any welfare assistance despite putting their lives on the line in the defence of the country.

SOLITARY AWARD: The Bentara Angkatan Tentera (BAT) medal is the only award Junga received throughout his service (1973-1994) in the Armed Forces.

BATTLE-scarred former Ranger Junga Kassim survived a communist ambush nearly 35 years ago but the memory of that close brush with death and the indifference of theauthorities to his suffering after the attack still pain him today.

Now retired and nursing an old war-inflicted injury, all he wants is to give his family a better life but that is one tall order with nobody around to give him an overdue leg-up.

On April 7, 1975, at about 3pm, the 56-year-old from Kampung Seruit, Serian, and his platoon were waylaid by communist guerrillas at Mong Gajah in Gubir, Perak, West Malaysia, and he was among the badly injured who managed to escape.

Three and a half decades on, the father of three is struggling to find his feet — he can hardly walk as the pain in his badly injured left leg has been recurring over the past two years despite a few operations.

But he said that’s nothing compared to the heartaches of being given virtually no welfare assistance even though he had put his life on the line to defend the country.

What makes him even more disillusioned is that those injured while doing ordinary duties have been given attention but people like him, almost killed in protecting the country’s freedom, have been neglected.

Speaking to thesundaypost at his residence, Junga, who joined the military training as a recruit at Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan in September 1973, said he was among 10 others seriously wounded on that April afternoon.

He said after his military training, he was posted to the 7th Regiment Ranger, then based at Sungai Petani, Kedah, and their duty was to patrol the border and important target areas.

Although the security situation in the country was unstable back then, he said it did not discourage him from joining the military because “I know no one can escape death.”

“It’s just a matter of when and how a person dies. So I served in the army without any fear of death. I’m not saying I’m brave but as soldiers, we should be prepared to face any threat, especially in those days when the communist terrorists were very active in the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia.”

Junga said he understood members of the security forces led a risky life — they could get injured or even killed any time.

“That’s why I consider myself very lucky to have survived the ambush although I was seriously injured by gunshots.”

Recapping the day of the ambush, he said after being deployed to guard one of the dams at Mong Gajah for a few months, their platoon from D Company, 7th Ranger Regiment, had just exchanged duties with their counterparts from the Royal Malay Regiment and were moving out.

Normally, the Malaysian infantry units — Ranger and Royal Malay Regiments — would be stationed at various points on two-to-three-months rotation to guard important targets.

After handing over duty to the in-coming unit, Junga’s platoon made the trip back to their permanent base at the Airport Camp in Sungai Petani.

They boarded three army trucks with a ferret scout car leading the way. Junga was in the second truck.

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