The plaques were unveiled and blessed in the RSA on Saturday. Reverend Jack Papuni and RSA committee member John Coleman officiated and around 50 people, including veterans, attended the event.
Baz Porter, a Whakatane-based Malaya/Borneo veteran, presented the plaques to the RSA during the November 2013 Malaya Veterans’ National Reunion in Gisborne.
Toti Tuhaka, national patron of the Korea and South East Asian Forces Association, said the presentation of the plaques honouring the army, navy and air force, were the last obligation of the reunion committee.
The plaques named the men who “willingly gave their lives for the freedom that we all take for granted”.
New Zealand’s military involvements in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan have overshadowed the Malaya Campaign.
Nonetheless, Malaya was longer and more expensive in money terms and was ultimately successful as now evidenced by the now free and prosperous nation of Malaysia.
The Malayan Emergency, in all respects a shooting, anti-insurgent guerrilla war, lasted from 1948 to 1960.
However, its official end did not mean New Zealand military personnel came home.
Royal New Zealand Navy ships continued regular deployments to Singapore so maintaining a presence in Malaysian waters; the army maintained a regular force infantry battalion in Malaysia until 1969 and then in Singapore until 1989 (from 1967-1972, New Zealand infantry troops in Vietnam came largely from these battalions; and the RNZAF maintained strike, transport and aerial delivery aircraft in Singapore throughout the Emergency Confrontation in 1964-66 and beyond to the mid-1970s.
Malaya deployments from 1948-89 amounted to upwards of 38,000 New Zealand Service persons.
The cost was not cheap. Twelve Kiwis died in action, on operation or exercise. Another 55 died of disease or in accidents while on deployment.
The Malaysian Government recognised the service of New Zealand and Commonwealth veterans in 2004 with the award of the Pingat Jaya Malaysia Medal in recognition of “distinguished chivalry, gallantry, sacrifice, or loyalty” in contributing to the freedom and independence of Malaysia.
The New Zealand Government last year recognised the service of Malaya veterans with an inaugural Malaya Veterans’ Day commemoration service, parade and Parliamentary reception.
The day is commemorated annually on September 15.
n While the New Zealand Malaya Veterans’ Association is primarily an organisation for veterans of the active service, the association welcomes inquiries from any ex-service persons or widows and families of deceased ex-service persons. Inquiries to Barry Allison at 6 Coldstream Road, Gisborne, phone (06) 867-7248 or 027-281-0495 or email bazbarbzingizzie@xtra.co.nz
Of course the ‘Malaya Emergency’ couldn’t be called a ‘war’ or the British rubber and tin mining industrialists wouldn’t have had their losses from the conflict covered by insurance.
And “History belongs to the victors”.
Suggesting the Commonwealth military intervention was “ultimately successful as now evidenced by the now free and prosperous nation of Malaysia” seems difficult to reconcile with the experience of a country like Vietnam where a similar imperialist campaign against Communist guerrillas failed miserably and left a horrific legacy of unexploded munitions, chemical weapons pollution of the gene pool and environment and up to three million Vietnamese dead. Economic performance under the Communist government of Vietnam has been on par with and at times surpassed Malaysia for many years.
Of course successive governments in both countries continue to abuse human rights and deny opportunities for free and independent news media, though it could be argued Vietnam has, for a range of positive and negative reasons, had far less violence from ongoing internal insurgencies than Malaysia since their respective international conflicts ended.
GISBORNE RSA now has a trio of illustrated, framed plaques of the Malaya Campaign