KUCHING: Retired soldier Junga Kassim, 56, regretted that some people had misconstrued what had been reported about him in this newspaper over the past few days.
He pointed out that highlighting his predicament through the media was never aimed at tarnishing the image of the government or the Veterans Affairs Department (JHEV) in particular, but just to share his years of sufferings and predicament with others with the hope that some generous and caring people out there would come to his aid.
“I want to make it clear here that the JHEV officials should not get me wrong because my intention was not to condemn anyone, but of course some parties could have felt guilty and try to refute the facts in the newspaper report to defend themselves,” he said.
Speaking to The Borneo Post through telephone yesterday, Junga from Kampung Seruit, Serian, said he felt disturbed when an officer and an ordinary staff from the JHEV office visited his house earlier in the day.
“They are obviously unhappy with the articles that came out in the newspaper and instead of coming to show their concern over my welfare and health, their attention was more towards clarifying certain things in the news reports and also to express their dissatisfaction,” Junga said. “However, I explained to them that what was reported in the paper on the few occasions was based on facts and they were not invented stories although undeniably there were few minor mistakes which I think should be okay and acceptable because they are not the main issue here.”
He said the main issue in his case was that the injury on his left leg that was severely broken in an ambush by the communist in Gubir, Kedah on April 7, 1975 had recurred after he was forced to do hard labour after retirement from the service in 1994.
“The facts are after I left the service in 1994, I was forced to work extra hard to earn a living in order to support my three schooling children as the monthly pension I was receiving then was very little and not enough.
“Because of the tough jobs my injury recurred and at a later stage I was unable to walk any more.
“Despite all the problems I was facing, I never received any assistance from anyone even though I was one of those servicemen almost got killed in the battlefield when protecting the country from the communist threat. These are all facts and what’s wrong with that,” he said.
He reiterated that he highlighted his problem in the newspaper because he could not understand why people like him who had sacrificed their lives for the country could not get any assistance from the government.
“Now I have to move using wheelchair. My wife, with the help of some relatives, had no choice but to buy a wheelchair upon my discharge from the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) last Monday.
“They did not have much money, so we bought the cheapest one which cost more than RM300. We were forced to buy a wheelchair because the doctor treating me said I should not stand and step on something,” he said.
His only relief was that the Ex-Servicemen Association, Sarawak branch had promised to reimburse the cost of the wheelchair.
He was admitted to SGH on Oct 12 and a surgery was conducted on him the next day to remove the pain in his left leg. He was discharged a week later and is now recuperating at home.
Junga joined the Army in 1973 and after completing basic military training in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan the same year, he was posted to the 7th Regiment Ranger that was then based in Sungai Petani, Kedah.
Being an infantry unit, the Ranger Regiment would be regularly involved in operations to safeguard important points against communist threats and while on their way back from the operation area their troop was ambushed.
In the incident, seven soldiers died while 10 others, including Junga were seriously wounded when two of the three military trucks in a convoy were repeatedly fired at while ascending a slope.
Junga survived the attack but the injuries he sustained had forced him to be confined in the base and doing only light duties and also because of that he could not get promoted until he retired from the service in 1994. Being a private it was also natural that his pension will be much lower than those with ranks and to support his three schooling children he had forced himself to do hard labour in the padi field and gardens to earn extra despite having to put his health at risk.
True enough since two years ago, he could hardly walk after the injury on the left leg caused by gunshots fired by the communists during the ambush recurred and the only way to recover is to undergo another round of surgery.