Jungle walk in 1953 at the Malayan/Thai border

‘Some time in 1953, a Press Officer and I were assigned to cover a patrol by the Jungle Field Force on the Malayan/Thailand border. Arriving at Tanah Merah, in the state of Kelantan, we were glad to hear the Jungle Field Force, in cooperation with the police, had been combing the border for Communist terrorists and their camps.

‘From a Malayan Railway coach we changed to a Thai train to proceed to the Thai town of Sungai Padi. Apart from my photographic material and equipment I was weighed down by a kitbag containing four days’ ration, clothing and arms weighing about 70 lb. We embarked on an endless walk, although later it was confirmed to be only 10 miles – through padi fields and undergrowth.

‘We camped in the open. The only water available was from the padi fields. That night was memorable for its oppressive warmth and the waves of mosquitoes stinging and humming us to very tired sleep. Early next morning we started for the hills for a combing of the border for Communist terrorists and their camps. We did about 15 miles day journey and camped out another night in the jungle. The next day we went back to Tanah Merah.’

Contribution of a life time ...

His photographs had been and will be published more than a thousand times. Every time we celebrate the Independence Day, the media will publish all these pictures again and again. Business enterprises, large-format picture printers, photo treatment companies will repeatedly claim credits as well as reaping cash of the pictures they use but the original artist remains uncredited.

For a senior person like Wong Swee Lin, he doesn't mind this. Because all the sweat, tears and blood that he had shed during his service were partly for the love of his work, and greatly for the love of his nation. It was him and his fellow comrades, whether still alive or had passed awy, who documented the birth of 1Malaysia. And they did all the work not merely for money for the pay was too low, but the risk ... so huge.