KUCHING: Sarawak police are hoping to trace some 500 former policemen who served during the Malayan emergency and the communist insurgency between 1948 and 1990, so they could be awarded their Pingat Jasa Pahlawan Negara (PJPN) service medals.
Most of these policemen, including those from the disbanded famed Border Scouts and the Sarawak Constabulary, had returned to their longhouses and villages in the state's interior upon their retirement, Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mancha Ata said today.
"We are making every effort to trace them down as many of them now live in rural areas, including very remote ones.
"The number is not very high, but due to the areas where they live. communication in extremely difficult and it is difficut to contact them.
"Nonetheless, we will make every effort to find them," he said after presenting medals at an award ceremony at the Sarawak General Operations Force Brigade in Kem Batu Kawa near here today.
Mancha said that once they are traced, they will be invited to attend the next award ceremony.
He said if the policemen could not attend the ceremony due to age and poor health, then the police would go to them wherever they are to present the medals.
Mancha said he is optimistic in the ability of the Sarawak police to trace these "missing" heroes and present them with their the medals before the end of the year.
The PJPN is awarded in recognition of heroism, sacrifice, and service to the nation during the emergency in Malaya from July 12, 1948, to July 21, 1960.
Those who also served during the communist insurgency in peninsula from June 17, 1968, to December 2, 1989, and in Sarawak and Sabah from 1962 to October 17, 1990, are eligible to receive the medal.