Nang Chong Stories : Next village, Tanjong Kunyit

In the early 1970's, Tanjong Kunyit was one of the main hotspots of communist activities in Sarawak. My grandmother , uncles and aunts and all their children lived just a stone throw away from this village, in another village called Nang Chong.

Communists terrorists or CTS constantly harrassed the villagers, forcing them to provide food and medical supplies and if they did not oblige they would be hurt. Many bicycles were stolen by the CTS and it was later that we learned that the stolen bicycles provided them barrels for their home made shot guns.

Rascom and their officers came to help the villagers and later a "Danger Belt Scheme" was introduced by Thambipillay who wrote a book  "The Last Post - story of the Emergency 1948-1960 and Commemorative Events"。about his service in Sarawak. He spent 6 months in the Tanjong Kunyit village and got to know the headman, Kang Hin Yu, and his family. It must have been very interesting and even daunting for an Indian man living in a Chinese village with some security forces encamped some where near by. Headman Kang Hin Yu and his family later moved to Sungei Merah and became our Sg. Merah neigbhours! His daughter Miss Kang taught in Tiong Hin Secondary School until she retired.

More than 40 years later, Datuk Thambipillay visited Methodist Chinese Church, Board of Literature Office in Sibu and presented his book to the Editor, Wong Meng Lei.(Feb 25th 2014)


Datuk R. Thambipillay, 88, who retired as Ipoh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief in October 1984, and fought against the communist insurgency. He also returned to Sarawak to visit Tanjong Kunyit and to renew friendships with the locals in Sibu.