Kota Kinabalu: The annual Anzac Day wreath-laying commemoration ceremony in Kota Kinabalu was held at the Anzac Memorial, formerly called North Borneo World War 1 Memorial, in Jalan Tugu, opposite Kota Kinabalu City Hall, Friday morning.
The solemn event honours Australian, New Zealand, British soldiers along with fallen locals who fought, in this case, against the Japanese Occupation, to protect the sovereignty of Sabah.
Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Datuk Ceasar Mandela Malakun, represented Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, and Datuk Lifred Wong, Director General of City Hall, represented Mayor Datuk Seri Dr Sabin Samitah.
Lifred noted that besides history, the annual Anzac event reflects a heart beat in the power of enduring relationship, especially for Sabah, which was liberated by Aussie and Kiwi troops.
Australia turned up with a visible high presence with Deputy Australian High Commissioner, Simon Fellows, leading a uniformed delegation, including Major General Ash Collinbum, Commander of the first Australian Division with his ADC and RSM uniformed.
Also present were the Assistant Defence Advisor, Lt Colonel Glenn Sheridan, from the Australian High Commission, Major Jon Bennet from the Malaysia Australia Joint Defence Programme, while the catafalque party, with women members, came from 2nd/30th training group at RMAF Butterworth.
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Accompanying them was Datuk Andrew Sim, Australia Honorary Consul in Sabah.
“We are very thankful to the Kota Kinabalu City Hall for organising this event over the years (since 2013) and the general support that maintains long lasting ties between Australia and Malaysia ,” noted Simon Fellows.
The brief event was also marked by a vibrant presence of Malaysian police, army, maritime contingents, government department officials, but New Zealand and British officials were visibly absent.
As without fail, renditions of the rousing national anthems “Negaraku”, “Sabah Tanah Airku” and “Advance Australia Fair”, “The Last Post” in tribute to the fallen, were orchestrated by the Royal Malaysian Police Band.
Nowhere else would one hear the Aussie national anthem on Sabah soil.
The Jalan Tugu monument, once called the North Borneo War Monument but later incorporated the memory of Anzac, was built in 1923 originally on Bond Street (now Gaya Street) in then Jesselton, before it was shifted in the 1970s.
Meanwhile, a separate and bigger traditional Anzac Dawn Service is held in Sandakan annually on April 25 at the Sandakan War Memorial, a WW2 camp site which locked up 2,423 Aussie and British prisoners-of-war for more than three years for forced labour but were eventually all killed except six who broke free.
It was first initiated by Lynette Silver in 1999.
This Sandakan Dawn Service which begins before sun rise, is normally attended by bigger numbers of especially Australians serving as a reminder of the sacrifice and friendship between the Allied nations and Malaysia.
