Petagas memorial hall to be built
Published on: Wednesday, January 22, 2020
By: Larry Ralon
KOTA KINABALU: A memorial hall will be built at the Petagas War Memorial here for exhibiting photos and historical information related to the World War II (WWII) unsung heroes.
The works to construct the proposed hall, which will cost a few million ringgit, will begin this year, said Deputy Chief Minister cum Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Datuk Christina Liew.
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She said the appointed developer has submitted the development plan that includes the hall, to the Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) and is waiting for approval.
“We have already appointed a developer who had also came up with a development plan which has been completed.
“The development consist a new hall which will be built in a vacant spot at the side of the memorial. All the historical photos and information (of the WWII fallen heroes) will be put for display in this memorial hall.
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“I believe that within this year we will be able to start work.
“I think that after so long, these fallen heroes deserved something more than this. And so the building of the hall is meant for keeping and exhibiting all the works and sacrifices they have made for this country,” she said.
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She said the presence of the hall will make the memorial a historical site and also will make it as another tourism site where tourists can come and understand about what happened during WWII.
Liew told reporters this after she represented the Chief Minister in leading in commemorating war victims at the memorial early Tuesday.
In last year’s memorial service, Liew had said her Ministry plans to turn the Petagas War Memorial into a historical site and another tourism hotspot in the city.
The Petagas War Memorial is only one of two such sites in the world where a memorial was built over the exact spot where the remains of the fallen lay buried. The other is Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, which the Japanese attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.
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Among those who was buried at Petagas is Albert Kwok, a Sarawakian who led the guerrillas. Kwok and five ring leaders were beheaded while 170 others were machine-gunned to death by the Japanese.
Another 131 were sent to Labuan and of these only 11 survived.