Does anybody remember that Tugu Negara was bombed on Aug 27, 1975, by a communist terrorist?
They roamed the country like nobody’s business and created panic among the people.
The country plunged into a crisis following the assassination of the then inspector-general of police Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Hashim by the communists.
As we celebrated National Day and Malaysia Day, it is time we remember those who sacrificed their lives to defend the country.
This is why the government quickly restored the monument back to its former glory.
Christopher Carney, then a lecturer at the Mara Institute of Technology’s School of Art and Design, was one of those involved with the restoration.
After almost 42 years, people like Carney have been forgotten, but in June, during the Hari Raya holidays in the sleepy town of Launceston in Tasmania, Australia, a cheerful skipper named Christopher, of the Lady Launceston, a vessel of the Tamar River Cruises, greeted us. We had no idea that this Christopher was the one who restored Tugu Negara.
He asked us where were we from and his eyes lit up when we said Malaysia. He said he once lived in Klang and was one of the guys who rebuilt Tugu Negara.
Recently, Christopher came into my mind again when my father stumbled on an article by Free Malaysia Today on the bombing and the name Christopher Carney was mentioned.
We were sure this was the same person on Lady Launceston.
I emailed Tamar River Cruises to confirm whether the Christopher whom we met was Christopher Carney.
Two days after that, I got a reply from Carney himself confirming that it was indeed him and he expressed his surprise that I knew his surname.
Carney, along with others whose name might have not been mentioned in the papers, had sacrificed their time and effort to rebuild a piece of our beloved nation’s history.
Gregory Kong Min Kyn
Cheras, Selangor