Grandpa Was A Soldier (Merdeka Day Special)

I remember, not long ago when I looked at the old photographs of my grandparents, I saw my grandfather holding a rifle. He's wearing the soldier outfit, with beret on his head. He looked really young, I wondered why my parents never told me that he's once a soldier.

"Oh, that photo. Took it 60 years ago." My grandma said, smiling as she looked at that photo. "You see, it's not really his choice to fight the Communists at first. But he is the leader of our village that time, so he wanted to protect our village from the Communists. He actually died proudly for our country."

"How did he die? Please tell me his story." I said.



The story sets in 1977, when Grandpa was retired. He owned an orchard and he sells the harvest to support the family. It was one day when he and my aunt who is 8 years old that time to gather their harvest of durians and other fruits for them to sell, he saw the sight of few strangers lurking behind the woods. Fearing that it might be the communists, he asked my aunt to hide behind his truck.

Being my old grandpa, reckless and do not fear anything, he went on to confront the communists. He was not armed at the time, but it took plenty of bullets to actually bring him down. The communists restrained him, and tried to persuade, if not force him to join their ranks. If my grandpa, as the leader of the whole village, becomes one of them, the Min Yuen operation would be really easy. Grandpa stared at them in the eyes, and spat on them.

"What do you know about patriotism, huh? I'm not the patriot that you wanted to convert. I just wanted to protect my village, my family." Grandpa shouted, his voice as loud as ever. "Rather than letting you kill my family, you should just kill me instead, and go home empty-handed. By the way, do you even have a family?"

One of the communists was furious, and he pulled the trigger. The bullet hit my grandpa straight on his head. His eyes could not be closed, glaring with vengeance. Grandpa's hand gripping one of the communists hand so tightly, even though he no longer draws breath.

Witnessing the slaughter, my aunt do what Grandpa had told her, run. So she escaped and told the whole village about this. The police were fast enough to react, and went to the orchard to begin the hunt. Grandpa's body was recovered, and buried in Taman Tehu not far away from the village.

Few weeks later, the communists were found. The police penetrated through their camp and arrested most of the survivors. The survivors were then tied up on a stick, symbolising the pigs, by the villagers. They were put under the sun to wait until they die of dehydration. But the damage is done, the death of their beloved leader could not be reversed.





Upon finishing this story, grandma shed her tears.

"He said that he wanted to protect the village, not mentioning about the country at all." She said. "Do you realize how a purpose so small could bring a result so big?"

I hugged my grandma and said, "perhaps he knew it all along, maybe he have too much ego to admit that he's responsible to protect the country."







~Dear Malaysia, Happy Birthday~