[hang nadim] Makam Pahlawan 'Bujang Berani' dibina dengan kos RM120,000......

ANGGOTA tentera melakukan upacara pengkebumian semula 21 pahlawan Iban di Makam Pahlawan, Kuching, Sarawak, semalam.

KUCHING 27 Julai - Makam Pahlawan yang menjadi tempat persemadian kekal 21 rangka 'Bujang Berani' terdiri daripada anggota Iban Trackers dan Sarawak Rangers dibina dengan kos RM120,000 melalui pembiayaan Perbadanan Pembangunan Ekonomi Sarawak (SEDC).

Pengerusi SEDC, Datuk Talib Zulpilip berkata, pembiayaan itu merupakan salah satu program tanggungjawab sosial korporat (CSR) pihaknya khusus untuk menghargai pejuang negara yang terkorban sewaktu menentang pengganas komunis sekitar 1948 hingga 1963.

"Diperbuat daripada granit kelabu, reka bentuk batu nisannya adalah sama dengan makam asal mereka di Semenanjung manakala tugu utamanya diperbuat daripada granit hitam beserta dengan cetakan huruf timbul berwarna keemasan.

"Apabila adat istiadat pengkebumian selesai, tapak Makam Pahlawan akan diserahkan kepada Jabatan Muzium Sarawak selaku agensi yang bertanggungjawab menjaganya," katanya di sini hari ini.

Rangka 21 'Bujang Berani' itu tiba di bandar raya ini semalam melalui 'Ops Mai Pulai' dan dikebumikan di Makam Pahlwan yang terletak bersebelahan Tugu Peringatan Pahlawan Perang Dunia Kedua, di sini petang ini.

Dalam operasi berkenaan, SEDC diberi tanggungjawab untuk mengenalpasti tapak makam dan membangunkannya termasuk mereka bentuk batu nisan dan tugu utama.

Pada peringat awal, tapak asal yang telah dikenal pasti adalah Batu 7, Jalan Serian-Kuching namun, memandangkan kerancakan pembangunan komersial di kawasan itu, lokasinya ditukar ke Jalan Taman Budaya.

Mengulas lanjut, Talib berkata, selepas ini pihaknya akan mengadakan kerjasama dengan Jabatan Hal Ehwal Veteran, Angkatan Tentera Malaysia (ATM) dan jabatan berkaitan untuk menganjurkan majlis makan malam amal pada Oktober ini untuk mengumpul dana.

Katanya, dana itu akan disumbangkan kepada keluarga 21 'Bujang Berani' selain digunakan untuk menampung kos naik taraf Makam Pahlawan.

Fallen hero Unggat returned to his family after more than 50 years

KUCHING: Catherine Kupa Unggat @ Karina Abdullah still remembers what her father, Unggat Ujom, said before he left to fight the communist in the peninsula during the Malayan Emergency.

“I will come home. We will meet again soon,” he said some 50 years ago. Yesterday, he fulfilled that promise when his remains along with 20 other Iban Trackers and Sarawak Rangers, were brought back home.

Catherine, along with her younger sister Marilyn Lawas Unggat and other family members received Private Unggat’s remains at the Royal Malaysian Air Force base here in a solemn and heartfelt ceremony.

“After over 50 years, my father has finally come home to us. He is not alive but he is home,” she told The Star.

Catherine recalled that she was still in Primary Three when she saw her father for the last time as he dropped her off at school in Kapit. She remembered distinctly that he was in his uniform then.

“I was studying away from our longhouse and I was a boarder. So that morning, my dad told me he was going off on duty.

“I remember asking him when will he be back and he replied soon. I told him ‘you need to look after yourself because you need to come back fast’ and he said he would,” she said before breaking down in tears.

The retired nurse said her father then made her promise to do well in her studies while he was away.

She counted the days for her father to return and take her out to eat noodles at the stalls, like they normally did. That day, however, never came.Catherine learnt about her father’s death through a classmate, who heard about it over the radio.

“My mother, back in the longhouse, was informed about it earlier, but I had to learn about it from a friend. The news finally struck home for me when I saw my mother arriving to pick me up from school, and we returned to the longhouse for the traditional rites,” she said.

She said the army invited her mother to visit the peninsula to see his body but she could not go as Marilyn was still a toddler then.

Marilyn said, although she did not have the chance to know her father, her siblings often spoke wonderful things about him so that she would not totally miss out on him. The sisters have two older siblings.

“I was a child without a father, and today, I am here receiving his remains. I may have only been four months old when he left, but I do feel the void,” she said.

Three years after his death, in a cruel twist of fate, a fire engulfed their longhouse Rumah Penghulu Sibat in Baleh, Kapit, destroying all the pictures the family had of Unggat.

With the return of their father yesterday, Catherine and Marilyn may have finally found the closeness they sought with him all these years


nukilan hati hang nadim
Wahai rakyat Malaysia ingat perjuangan mereka bagi mengaman negara
betapa tingginya pengorbanan mereka tetapi mengapa hari ini kita
tidak menilai keamanan tidak bersyukur.....mengapa mencari jalan
memecah belah perpaduan negara.....terutama Pelajar tuntutlah Ilmu
hingga mencapai kejayaan.....penuhkan Ilmu didada dan kembali berbakti
kepada Ibu bapa dan Agama Bangsa dan Negara.....