S’pore, Taiwan honour Sabah commandos
Published on: Saturday, March 19, 2016
By David Thien
HONOURED by the Singapore History Museum, renowned ichthyologist Datuk Chin Phui Kong, 93, is Sabah’s former Director of the Fisheries Department, author and co-author of two authoritative books – ‘Marine Food Fishes and Fisheries of Sabah’ and ‘The Fresh Water Fishes of North Borneo’, was probably the last civil service technocrat who got things done by merit.
Unknownst to many young Sabahans and Malaysians, he was a Force 136 commando specialising in demolition with explosives, which was ironic because after his era, Sabah was plagued with blast fishing until today by migrants.
Although the top command of Force 136 were British officers and civilians, most of those it trained and employed as agents were indigenous to the regions in which they operated.
“I was born in 1923, in the British North Borneo capital of Sandakan. In 1941, my father sent me to China (under the Nationalist Kuomintang rule now retreated to Taiwan as a political party) for free schooling at a middle school (secondary school).
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“We only need to pay for our food.” Prior to that, Chin completed his junior school studies at the Chung Hwa School in Sandakan.
“When war broke out, I was stranded in China. Several of us were recruited by a joint Sino/British task force looking for tri-lingual talents – Malay, English and Mandarin speaking for war service in Southeast Asia particularly in Malaya overrun by the Japanese Army.
“We were sent to India and Ceylon for military training under Force 136 and were parachuted into Perak after a 12-hour flight on board a modified B24 Liberator heavy bomber from Ceylon’s Trincomalee Airport.
“Prior to that, as part of their practical jungle warfare tactic and training, they had to camp in the Ceylonese jungle.
They were trained in other warfare at the Eastern Warfare School in Poona near Bombay and parachuting at Jessore Airbase, north of Calcutta.
“I, in a party of not more than five parachutists, had to jump from 800 feet to land within 21 seconds on the ground,” Chin said, remembering how they walked two hours from the drop zone about six miles from Bidor Town at the foothill of Cameron Highlands up the hills to train the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA under the leadership of Chin Peng).
To the British, the tri-lingual Chinese were the most dependable and able resistant fighters while the Indians and Malays were courted by the Japanese against the British colonial empire in India and Malaya.
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There were at least four such Force 136 commandos from Sabah, and only two remain alive in the State.
The last time that they were in the pink of health to attend Force 136 reunion in Singapore was 15 years ago, and since then many comrades had passed away.
While our National and State museums do not honour or recognise their valour, the Singapore History Museum honours their WWII service of active sacrifice even though all Force 136 commandos, including Chin, by displaying their personal documents dated back to the liberation of Malaya efforts by the Allies.
Chin’s original military service papers and recognition documents are with the museum in Singapore which had insured them for thousands of dollars which was testament to their intrinsic value and this begs the question: Why our museum is not actively soliciting such artefacts from such Sabahans who are not the usual post-Merdeka appointed Governors or politicians, with fruitful lives not lesser in achievements, if not greater?
Much was publicised about the recognition award by the Republic of China (Taiwan) last year for three of Sabah’s Force 136 commandos for their bravery – the late Ho Su Shen, Liang Shi Ming, 97, and Chin by Taiwan’s Chief Secretary of Overseas Community Affairs Council Chang Liang-Ming, the Burma Star were worn with far more longer pride with their uniforms.
The award was for all veterans of the WWII in Asia from the Mainland theatre under Allied Commander Louis Mountbatten as compared with the Pacific Star for the seaborne American General MacArthur thrust.
After the surrender of Japan, demobilised with an honourable discharge from the Force 136 Malaya Command in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 15, 1946 as a First Lieutenant, Chin returned to China for his tertiary education at Amoy University (now Xiamen University which opened a branch campus in Malaysia) and graduated with a B.Sc. degree in Marine Biology.
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Chin joined the colonial Fisheries Department in 1950 (a year after China fell into Communist rule) until his retirement in 1978 as the Sabah Director of Fisheries.
Chin is recognised by industry experts to have penned a more authoritative book on fresh water fishery than available in West Malaysia back then, and was consulted by UMS pioneers on the subject prior to their Borneo Marine Research Centre establishment as an expert, if not the father of fresh water fishery rearing industry development.
His book, published in 1998 with a foreword by Tun Mahathir Mohamad, the then Premier, is now being used as a text book in Sabah and Sarawak educational institutions.
Today, living on a pension of less than RM3,000 which qualifies him to receive BR1M payments, he was not too proud to hide the fact that every depreciated ringgit counts as living costs escalate, even though he demurred accepting funds from his three generous children all well-established overseas – they do occasionally return to Sabah on visits.
In Singapore, Chin would be considered a ‘national treasure’ by merit, if he were a citizen there.