PETALING JAYA: Every time the telephone rang close to midnight, young Gerard Kiong knew his father would soon be leaving.
Within minutes, a police vehicle would pull up outside their home in Ipoh to pick him up, leaving the family wondering when – or if – he would ever return.
“I knew he was a policeman, but I had no idea what he actually did.
“We never knew where he was going or when he would be back. It was frightening,” recalled Gerard, the only child of Datuk Paul Kiong (pic), a national hero renowned for his role in the fight against communist insurgents.
He said neither he nor his late mother Datin Veronica Low ever questioned his father about his frequent calls to duty.
“My father never shared anything about his work, and my mother would always change the subject whenever I asked her,” he said after the launch of his father’s memoir, The ‘Communist’ Role I Played, here yesterday.
It was only years later that Gerard understood the extraordinary burden his father carried while serving as an undercover Special Branch operative during the Second Malayan Emergency.
Gerard described his late mother as the family’s pillar of strength, saying she single-handedly kept the household together despite never knowing whether her husband would return safely from his covert missions.
Kiong, 82, joined the police force as a constable in 1964 before serving with the Special Branch, where he spent six years infiltrating communist ranks under an assumed identity.
His intelligence work played a key role in operations that led to the neutralisation of about 50 communist operatives.
His greatest achievement was helping secure the mass defection of members of the Malayan Communist Party before the insurgency ended in 1989.
He is one of only four surviving recipients of the Seri Pahlawan Gagah Perkasa (SP), the highest federal award for gallantry.
In his speech, Kiong reiterated that the medal did not belong to him alone but to every member of the security forces who had sacrificed for the country.
“I am only holding it in trust, but it belongs to all those who served bravely,” said the former police superintendent.
Some 200 guests attended the book launch, including former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador, who called Kiong one of Malaysia’s most distinguished heroes.
Also present was former Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Christopher Wan who said Kiong’s memoir was a testament of the sacrifices made by the security forces.
Former police commissioner Datuk A. Thaiveegan, who was also present, said he hopes the sacrifices made by members of the security forces during the communist insurgency would receive due recognition in the nation’s history books.
