Army veteran still feels the pain of losing his leg
A BITTER memory that remains vivid after 49 years – that is how army veteran Hamidun Kamis recalls the incident where he lost his left leg after stepping on a booby trap in 1970.
The horrific incident occurred when he was 20 years old, during a patrol in a forested area near the East-West Highway, close to Tanah Merah, Kelantan.
'My platoon mates and I were on our second patrol, and on our way back, I stepped on a booby trap,' Hamidun recounted to Utusan Malaysia.
'I was thrown off my feet and my left leg was badly injured, down to the heel.'
Covered in blood, Hamidun, 74, said he had to be carried by his comrades to their base camp.
'It felt like my life was hanging by a thread.'
He now relies entirely on a prosthetic leg to move around.
He said replacement of the prosthetic is done every three years with government assistance but the process is not easy.
'I have to contact the hospital and wait for a letter.
'If the allocation has already run out, then I have to wait and this means I have to incur additional travel expenses.'
> Ever since her husband had a stroke last year, Noor Sawatry Dinar, 40, and the couple's five children have been forced to live in an abandoned house near Jalan Seelong Jaya in Johor, Kosmo! reported.
The family eat only whatever is available to them, which includes vegetables foraged from the surrounding area.
'After my husband first fell ill, he was still able to work at a nearby stone factory.
'But after his second stroke last May, we lost our only source of income and could no longer afford the rent,' said Noor Sawatry.
She said they had no choice but to live in the abandoned house, adding that there is no electricity.
They were previously evicted from their home in Kempas, Johor, after being unable to pay the bills, following her husband's condition.
'The four children aged between eight and 14 have not been to school for almost two months because we cannot afford to send them.'
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a, it denotes a separate news item.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Flag flies high in market and homes
Pride on display: Chng hanging multiple Jalur Gemilang near his stall in George Town, Penang. — CHAN BOON KAI/The Star Vendors and residents highlight their patriotic values with Jalur Gemilang GEORGE TOWN: The Jalur Gemilang flies proudly across markets, neighbourhoods and homes as Malaysians gear up for their 68th National Day. At the bustling Lebuh Cecil Market, drinks seller Chng Beng Chye has built tall illuminated poles around his stall, adorned with over a dozen mini Jalur Gemilang flags. 'Each year, I decorate my stall with flags and light the poles in red and blue LED strips to match the flag colours when National Day approaches. 'It lifts the patriotic spirit among locals and shows tourists how we honour our country,' said the 70-year-old when met at the stall yesterday. While acknowledging recent controversies over flags being wrongly displayed, Chng urged Malaysians to look past them. 'I believe no one born and raised in this country would purposely disrespect the flag. 'If we all come together for the love of the country, we can move forward to greater heights,' said Chng, who has been trading there since the 1990s. Just a few stalls away, Lim Siew Eng, 90, has her pastry stall crowned with a neat row of Jalur Gemilang flags that flutter in the breeze all year round. The national flag, she said, holds deep meaning because she lived through the hard times before independence and has seen how far the country has come. 'By decorating my stall, visitors know they are in Malaysia and we are proud Malaysians. 'I was born here, even without much education, I can speak Bahasa Malaysia because it is my national language. 'We should celebrate National Day as one nation,' she said. The patriotic fervour is also spreading through residential areas, with Pangsapuri Pelangi's Kawasan Rukun Tetangga putting up about 60 flags around the neighbourhood. The place is home to some 5,000 residents. Its chairman, K. Muniandy, 59, said as a multiracial community, no one is left out when it comes to celebrating National Day. 'Surrounded by the Jalur Gemilang, we are reminded of our independence and the harmony we enjoy today,' he said. At Sri Saujana Flats, joint management committee chairman Yeoh Kean Huat, 54, said six flags now greet residents. 'Last year, we had over 100 flags strung down the blocks. 'Although fewer this year, the spirit remains, and we urge residents to respect the flag and play their role in upholding it,' he said. Malaysia will celebrate its 68th National Day with the main parade in Putrajaya on Aug 31, followed by Malaysia Day celebration at PICCA@Arena Butterworth in Penang on Sept 16.
The Star
21 hours ago
- The Star
Japan's wartime children in Philippines search for kin, identity
SAN PABLO CITY, Philippines: After a lifetime of searching, Jose Villafuerte this month finally found the Japanese father he lost during the dark years of World War II in the occupied Philippines. The 82-year-old, a former gravedigger, was still in the womb of his Filipina mother, Benita Abril, when her partner, imperial army officer Ginjiro Takei, returned to Japan during its brutal occupation of the archipelago from 1942-45. His quest ended this month, days before the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender on Aug 15, 1945, after an advocacy group found Takei's tomb in Japan, where he had raised a family following the war. A living half-brother and half-sister were also found, with DNA swabs sealing the family ties. "I'm excited. My mother had spent years trying to make this happen," Villafuerte, a slightly built father of eight, told AFP at his home in San Pablo city, south of Manila, ahead of his first visit to Japan. Escorted by his son, he lit a candle and prayed before his father's tombstone in the city of Takatsuki, between Kyoto and Osaka, on Aug 7. Jose Villafuerte (centre) praying with his son Avelino Villafuerte (left) and his Japanese half-brother Hiroyuki Takei (right) at the gravesite of their father Ginjiro Takei together for the first time, in the city of Takatsuki in Osaka prefecture. - AFP He met his half-brother Hiroyuki Takei for the first time a day earlier and now expects to get a Japanese passport, as well as visas for his children and grandchildren. Villafuerte is one of more than 3,000 "Nikkei-jin", offspring of Japanese who were in the Philippines before or during World War II. Japan has in recent years begun helping in "recovering their identity", said Norihiro Inomata, country director for the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center (PNLSC). Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met Villafuerte and two other Nikkei-jin during a visit to Manila in April. However, only 100 or so are still alive more than two decades after the effort was launched in 2003, Inomata told AFP. The oldest is 97. "Time is running out," he said. "It was fate's design that I would be able to visit my father's grave. I am very much blessed, because I saw my brother and he guided me here to see the tomb of my father and their relatives," Villafuerte told reporters during the Takatsuki visit. His father Takei, a Japanese army engineer, worked on the Philippine railway system as part of the occupation forces but was sent home during the war, Inomata said. Growing up in post-war Philippines, Villafuerte was the target of merciless bullying, blowback from a conflict in which half a million of the South-East Asian country's 17 million people were killed, most of them civilians. An obelisk stands in the Chinese cemetery in San Pablo as a memorial to more than 600 male residents rounded up by Japanese troops and bayoneted to death in February 1945. "People kept reminding me my father was an evil person who killed many Filipinos," Villafuerte said, adding that it nearly caused him to drop out of school. "It hurt, because it was never my choice to have a Japanese parent." Manila grocer Maria Corazon Nagai, an 82-year-old widow and mother of three, gave up her Philippine passport for a Japanese one last April with PNLSC's help. She told AFP that her Japanese father, Tokuhiro Nagai, a civil engineer, had lived with her mother in Manila during the war. "In my family, I was the only one who looked different," said Nagai, who quit school after sixth grade when family finances bottomed out following her father's post-war death. She went to live with her maternal grandmother when her mother remarried and began working as a sales clerk in her teens. Maria Corazon Nagai showing her Japanese passport at her home in Manila. - AFP "I'm happy now that I've found my identity," said the bespectacled, soft-spoken Nagai, who still tends a cramped stall selling shampoo, noodles and condiments in Manila's downtown Zamora market. Nagai said she hid her parentage as she reached adulthood to avoid the bullying she endured as a child. She was "relieved to learn my father was not a soldier" when she obtained her birth records at the civil registry in the 1990s. Before the invasion, small groups of Japanese migrated to the Philippines from the late 19th century to escape "overpopulation", with some marrying locals, said Inomata, the legal centre director. Their offspring went into a "spiral of poverty" when the state confiscated their assets after the war, and many were unable to obtain a formal education, he said. One male descendant hid in the mountains of the southern Philippines for 10 years after the war fearing he would be harmed, Inomata said. Views towards Japan began changing in the 1970s as Tokyo completed war reparations that helped rebuild the Philippines, and Japanese investors built factories and created jobs. The two countries are now security allies. Nagai has been unable to find any Japanese relatives and couldn't locate her father's grave during her 2023 trip to Tokyo, but she will fly to Japan for a second time later this year for a holiday. Though she does not speak the language, Nagai said she now considers herself Japanese. For Villafuerte, the situation is more ambiguous. "Of course, it is difficult being a Filipino for 82 years and suddenly that changes," he said. "The past is past, and I have accepted that this is how I lived my life." - AFP
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
Families in Bahau unite to show national pride
Shared patriotism: Community members putting up the Jalur Gemilang in a housing area. Residents are continuing to embrace the Merdeka spirit despite ongoing flag-related disputes. — Sin Chew Daily PETALING JAYA: A close-knit neighbourhood in Bahau, Negri Sembilan, has shown what it means to be united, undeterred by the controversies surrounding the national flag of late. A total of 24 households comprising residents from the Chinese, Indian and Malay communities from Taman Sum Hup have chosen to fly the Jalur Gemilang with pride in front of their homes. 'I wanted to encourage each home to be a part of this patriotic display and fly our Jalur Gemilang,' said local councillor Lai Cheng Yew, who took the lead and purchased flags and flagpoles with his allowance. 'I'm so happy to see the residents participating willingly as the Merdeka celebration approaches, unaffected by the recent incidents,' he said, as reported by Sin Chew Daily. He said the effort is not just about countering negative sentiments but to also channel the community's energy into patriotism and away from controversies. 'I hope to instil a sense of pride and unity within the community. 'If anyone has mistakenly put up the flag, let's remind them and rectify it without making an issue of it,' he added.
