Kota Kinabalu: A group of Bajau Ubian families whose relatives were executed in Petagas on Jan 21, 1944 has launched an initiative to secure official government recognition for war victims’ descendants, compiling their own genealogical records spanning six generations.
“The Government has records of the victims’ names on the memorial, but there is no official registry of their heirs,” said Abdul Rahim Nazal, a second-generation descendant who coordinated the documentation effort.
“We hope for proper recognition of who the legitimate descendants are,” said the 88-year-old.
The families, representing 10 of the massacre victims from the Bajau Ubian ethnic community, produced a self-published book in 2025 documenting the lineages from the first generation of victims through to their present-day descendants.
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