During the Emergency period prior to Independence, instructions to assignments were delivered at Royal Air Force normally as early as 6.00 a.m – destination and duration unknown, usually a day period but sometimes for as long as two weeks. Missions were to cover story of VIPs at destinations to be told only upon arrival. Wong and friends were transported either by helicopter or Cessna Aircraft. Destinations normally were jungle forts in rural areas, remote villages or small towns where the VIPs would hold meetings; engage in talks with local leaders; address the people about important government policies and strategies; discuss with government officials on security; or for merely social visits. The VIPs whom Michael had accompanied included the British High Commissioner, Sir Edward Gent, Sir Henry Gurney, Sir Gerald Templer, Sir Donald Mac Guilvrey and other foreign dignitaries.
During employment with the Department of Public Relations (English time), initially as temporary clerk since August 26, 1948, among duties were to receive visitors at the Department and guide them to meet the appropriate officers; farm out letters and documents to the appropriate sections as he was sitting at the first table of the Department’s main entrance. This kept him busy visiting the various sections and made him popular among staffs at the Department. He also had to look after all the books at the library and documents received by the Department. Eventually an English lady from the British Council came to teach him (for three months) on how to index and file the books using the decimal classification system. Even today some of the old books still being kept at the Information Department were classified by him as his handwriting on the index slips can still be found on the books.
In 1949, after seating for an examination, he became State Clerical Officer and continued with the same tasks he did at the Public Relations Department.
In 1950 he was appointed as Photographer after completing the necessary tests. He was keen in photography that he even undertook photography assignments when he was still a clerk with the Public Relations Department. Moreover the post of Photographer was under Technical classification, which had a higher salary scheme. Eventually, when he was officially designated as Photographer, the Department employed a librarian and a clerk to look after the library.
Career in Photography
As a photographer with the PR Department, he was always on call round the clock. Assignments were delegated to him at odd hours. Wong and comrades were supplied with a ‘Speed Graphic’ camera that required 5” x 4” sheet film – a kind of single sheet films or a patch of R2 sheets, of eight exposures. In occasions when in-door assignments or when there is not enough sunlight he would have to use flash bulbs and equipped with flash bulb equipment to light up the bulbs and get them synchronized with the shutter of the camera. The bulbs were in three sizes that were marked with numbers 5, 11 and 22. The latter was the biggest specially used for capturing image in large space areas.
During those days, photographers with the PR Department had to process the films themselves select the negatives to be printed and delivered to local and foreign media, free-of-charge.
Brushing With Death
On one occasion an assignment to cover the Sultan of Pahang’s visit to Kuala Lipis was cancelled because of security reason. He was traveling with three others comprising of Malayan Film Unit cameraman Osman Shamsuddin, Radio Malaya officer Salleh Ahir and the driver. As they were already at the place of coverage, they had to leave Kuala Lipis to Kuala Lumpur. One of them was a bad traveler. They traveled the road from Kuala Lipis which passed through Raub via the Gap at Kuala Kubu Baru and to Kuala Lumpur instead of the normal Raub-Bentong and Kuala Lumpur. The roads those days were narrow and could cater for one way passage only, with many curves to mind.
After passing the Gap about a few miles away they had to stop awhile at a spot to allow the bad traveler to let out and enable them to ease and answer the call of nature, as there were no public toilet at the time. After a few minutes spending near the bushes, they continued their journey and met with the late Sir Henry Gurney with his envoy who was then traveling in the opposite direction towards the Gap and the Fraser’s Hill. Wong and friends were familiar faces at the King’s House where they usually met up with Henry Gurney. The envoy greeted and waved at the media group.
It was on that fatal night in Kuala Lumpur that Wong heard of the bad news from the radio, about the assassination of Sir Henry Gurney. The communist terrorists had sprayed bullets on Sir Henry Gurney’s envoy. He died on the spot but his wife and the driver were spared.
Wong was saddened by the news as he and friends had met Henry Gurney that day, just before the incident happened. He was astonished to find out later that the late High Commissioner was murdered right at the spot where the media group had stopped to answer the call of nature! Wong and friends then presumed that the bandits may have been hiding in ambush while they were busy ‘conducting businesses’ in the bushes.
Because of the incident, Tras, a village just after the Gap before Raub, was evacuated and the residents were relocated to another area to allow the British and local forces to storm and hunt for the bandits.
Wong had encountered with many critical moments especially being shot at by the communist terrorists. He and friends were shot at while traveling from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in an armoured train together with British officers and the African Rifles Unit. The bandits ambushed the train at Layang-Layang in Johor. They laid flat on the floor while the bandits riddled the train with bullets. On another occasion, Wong, while traveling with Public Relations officers from Tangkak to Segamat, were ambushed by bandits but did not hurt anyone.
In another incident, Wong and reporters from Utusan Melayu, Straits Times and Radio Malaya were attacked by communist bandits while traveling from Raub to Tras to cover the evacuation operations of the Tras village. Wong and friends were shot at and thrown with hand grenades. Luckily they were traveling in an armoured car which was equipped with special roof netting that expelled away the grenades that were thrown to the vehicle. Immediately after reaching Tras, Wong and friends received many calls from the police and superiors in Kuala Lumpur who came to know about the fatal incident and were worried about their safety.
Hard Jungle Bashing Time
During the Emergency, all assignments were pre-delegated to the Information Department photographers at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Base on the very moment before departure. The officials were grouped at 6.00 am in the morning and they had to sign a special form that stated the ‘RAF cannot be taken responsibility of any misfortune that would happen during the course of traveling.’ The government officials designated to fly with the RAF would jokingly say that the form was a kind of ‘death certificate’ and it was literally true as their safety was at stake because they had to go to dangerous zones where bandits were known to be roaming at large and ambushing in dark forests.
During such assignments, officials were not allowed to bring any food on board. They were only given with minimum rations at the assigned destinations. In many occasions they did not know the duration they had to spend to cover the assignments that left loved ones worried at home. Among the assignments were to cover the visits by British High Commissions or VIPs from overseas. The medium of transport to such remote areas were by air, normally on helicopters and small air planes like the Cessna, Beavers and Pioneers of the RAF. They would fly to faraway destinations like jungle forts, aborigines’ settlements, villages, small towns and army camps all over Malaya to meet the people, government officers and the army and security officers.
As no own food were allowed during traveling and at the designated destinations, Wong had to feed on whatever that were supplied to him. Sometimes he was out of any food, in the middle of nowhere in the dark jungles of Malaya. On one occasion onboard an armoured train, he was offered with some sandwiches for lunch by Sir Gerald Templer.
At nights, Wong would sleep at Orang Asli settlements, jungle forts, or military camps in the middle of jungles all over Malaya. He had encamped in the jungles in Malaya (peninsula) from south to north and even the bordering areas in Thailand.
Sometimes, upon reaching destinations, Wong had to go on foot for several miles, 10 to 15 miles a day, through paddy fields, swamps, streams, rivers, and thick jungles together with the army and field force. In many occasions when out of supply, Wong had to consume water from the paddy fields, streams and rivers and there was not a time when he and friends would be cautious to even care of the bacteria that they may have taken in their body system. They had no chance to be that cautious because it was merely for survival.
They were supplied with food from airdrops once in every four days. Among their rations included biscuits, corned butter, jams, cheese and chocolates. They had to rely on the wireless officer who would radio to base camps of their positions to enable helicopters to locate them for food airdrops. During those days, the ‘heaviest’ of men were the wireless officer, as he had to carry heavy radio communication equipments.
Wong and comrades had to wade through streams and swamps and were regularly ‘bitten’ by leeches in spite of wearing boots and heavy stockings. He used to sleep in the jungles and wearing the same wet clothes for days without taking any bath. He had rubbed his body with mosquito repellant to ensure not to surrender to malaria but the crickets made so much noise that he sometimes could not close his eyes. But the crickets were the only music that accompanied his nights in the jungle and that made him think more of the loved ones left behind in Kuala Lumpur. The sound from the crickets and the thought of attacks from wild animals and the communist terrorists made him spent sleepless nights in the jungles. When the birds started to chirp in the mornings, it was the signal of relief as he knew that he had survived the dangers that were lurking in the jungle. It also meant that he had to continue his journey and start packing up to check out from the ‘Million Star Hotel’, leaving no trace behind to avoid from being tailed by the communist terrorists.
The army patrol unit together with the media officers would continue walking the next morning at odd hours – 5.00 am to 6.00 am – and spend the next trail for another 10 to 15 miles journey. They used to walk while carrying heavy food stuffs, clothing and photography equipments as rations were airdropped once in every 4 day period. The usual path were streams, rivers and swamps and Wong had spent his nights encamped in the jungles all over Malaya or put up at Longhouses, or in tents at Field Force and Army Base camps.
Wong had walked the jungles, traveled in armoured cars and train coaches, and flew all over the country to document moments of the nation’s history. He spent many hours of dangerous traveling in a train from Gemas to Kuala Krai. He had boarded the HMS Alert from Singapore for a 10 days journey assignment to Kota Bharu with stopovers at various places and islands like Mersing, Pulau Tioman, Pekan, Kuantan, Pulau Perhentian, Dungun, Kuala Terengganu, Kota Baru and the Redang Island. He spent days at oil rigs in Sabah and Sarawak and stayed onboard. He had also documented pictures of deep sea fishing while spending time with fishermen from Pangkor Island.
Fondest Memories with Tun Razak
Wong had accompanied the premiers of Malaysia - Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn. He had fondest memories with Malaysian royal families while photographing them in numerous functions and occasions. Of all these moments, the most fondest ones were when he accompanied Tun Razak to the remotest areas in Malaysia to cover the Rancangan Luar Bandar which was the brainchild of the late ‘Bapak Pembangunan.’ Wong had documented most of the second Malaysian prmier’s visits all over the country.
Wong was assigned to cover and document Tun Razak’s visits and meetings. He photographed all the moments where Tun Razak went. He had the chance to travel to the remotest area where no vehicles could reach and the late prime minister was seen persistent in all his endeavours. He savoured all these moments in his photographs and would explain how difficult it was to pass through red muddy paths, narrow roads and crossed rivers and streams over many mediocre bridges.
This was the period when he and other media friends had to do a lot of walking as the late second premier had done so to visit the rakyats to ensure that the living conditions of the Malaysian people could improve. He documented the legacy of Tun Razak in his picture albums.
Wong had also sailed in the rivers together with Tun Razak to visit the remote areas in Pahang and Perak – from the base of Gunung Tahan and Kuala Lipis, Temerloh, Pekan to Slim River and to through the mouth of many rivers in the Peninsula.
Memory Lane
Wong has fondest memories when he was a boy. When studying at the Government English School in Tapah, he stayed with his parents and maternal grandmother together with eight brothers and sisters.
He used to tell about the moments when his grandmother used to walk with him school and would fetch him to return home. He had his time swimming in the river as there was no public swimming pool at the time. He had his time playing football, hockey and rounders or taking part in athletic events and the ramous sack-race, three-legged race, relay race, egg and spoon race and the tug-of-war.
