Two living witnesses evaluate emotive dispute

Published on: Saturday, October 22, 2016

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By Kan Yaw Chong
THE map (above) triggered an outbreak of public dispute over the Death March fought over in the Daily Express between two Aussies.

It blew up when Lynette Silver, author of “Sandakan – A Conspiracy of Silence”, noticed in April and objected to an official display of the dotted “alternate” Death March route to Miruru propounded by Dr Keven Smith, author of “Borneo: Australia’s Proud but Tragic Heritage”, at the Ranau Death March Museum launched by Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun.

Lynette met Masidi to protest.

Smith, apparently got wind of the meeting, pre-empted Lynette with a big report in the Daily Express to prove an alternate route went to Kg Miruru.

Lynette responded in kind a week later to debunk Smith. But neither budged after the media battle – both continued to cling to their respective stands.

Since the Daily Express was dragged into this unresolved dispute, we decided to do a serious, and hopefully, objective and unbiased evaluation to decide once and for all who is right.

This meant four exhaustive dawn to dusk return trips: KK-Kg Miruru-Kg Mankandait-Bauto, Tapang, Kg Koporon-Telupid-Kg Buis-Kg Tontintin-Beluran, to talk to two local guys – Tuaty Akau, 102, and Zudin, 85, who used to cut, walk, work, carry bullets on the original Death March track.

Traceability from two living witnesses

It has been said that dead men tell no tales, but because they are still alive 70 years later, they arm the Daily Express investigation and evaluation with an extremely rare power of traceability – an unbroken chain of evidence and ability to verify the history, location and exactly where the Death March track went with utmost accuracy.

What we have in our arsenal of investigation are two decisive factors in authenticity, two independent third-party local ‘judges’ who can adjudicate the dispute accurately, objectively and bias-free.

Nobody can now argue that one witness is not good enough as we have heard being said at the official level.

Because they worked on the Death March trail, we have every reason to recognise them as the ultimate authoritative guides whom we could completely trust to take us down memory lane to determine exactly where the track went and didn’t go.

And that’s the only question we need to answer: Where did the mid track go and didn’t go?

We think the investigation is repeatable by anyone else who want to meet and talk to these two guys, although they are old and frail especially Tuaty Akau. So do it fast. But first, let us consider Dr Smith’s evidence and argument for an alternate route.