KUCHING — The Malaysian Armed Forces Veterans’ Affairs Department (JHEV) has expressed disdain for the opposition’s overdramatisation of the Sarawak Heroes Monument issue.
Its Sarawak director, Lieutenant-Colonel Monday Juhid, said the monument located in Jalan Taman Budaya should not be taken advantage of, to draw votes.
“The opposition is brazenly making a big issue of the heroes’ monument for their political agenda, whereas when efforts were being made to bring back the soldiers’ remains, the group had remained silent and contributed nothing.
“Dragging the good name of the country’s heroes and twisting the facts to gain popularity is not a new tactic by the opposition; their main motive is to mislead the people into believing that the government had neglected and did not appreciate the sacrifices of Malaysia’s Merdeka heroes,” he said here Sunday.
Monday said the government built the monument, primarily to honour the 21 soldiers from Sarawak who were among those serving in the British army, who were killed while fighting against communist guerrillas during the Malayan emergency era in the peninsula and Singapore.