FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW GREAT OAKS

T'was a soft launch in many ways, but a milestone in the history of the Malaysian Artillery. The Gunners Club was officially launched on 19th December 2009 at the Dewan Serbaguna Masjid Muadz bin Jabal in Kuala Lumpur. If you were not there, you missed a piece of history. About 200 hardcore gunners witnessed the event. As the patron, Lt. Gen. Dato'Jaafar Mohamad (Retired), had the honour to launch the Club.It was nostalgia all the way. Past Gunners and some invited senior present Gunners had the opportunity to simply get together. The most memorable moment for me was to meet my old troops going back from my GPO days. Yes, we have all aged, but, the twinkle in our eyes said it all. As this post's title implies, I believe that this small event shall culminate one day to be a great organisation. The follow through to this event shall be the AGM next year. Our membership drive is ongoing, so sign up soon to stand and be counted among the elite.


This blog was set up to be the information link for Gunners and to a small extent some tales told were really unrecorded history and I thank the contributors especially Col. Allan Lai. I seek the indulgence of my fellow Gunners in the readership to tinker away on your PCs and let us read your thoughts and experiences. The next generation of Gunners should not be denied the richness of our past exploits. Towards this end, starting January 2010, I shall run a series of posts titled "Jottings of a Gunner General". Yes, you guessed it, it will be from the proverbial horses'mouth covering unheard of historical facts based on our Gunner ancestry. Keep a look out for this.


"HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!".

P.S. Double click on the picture to get a better view and see if you recognise them.

I would never fish again

Yes I would never fish again. I had a phobia.

 

Most of our patrols would be quite routine, except for river crossings and returning to base at dusk before stand-to time. We would moved in single file, stopped to rest and camped for the night, covering map square to map square. Returning to base required extra care for identification and not moved into our own booby traps primed for the night.

 

Patrolling with the Commandos would be a bit more adventurous. The Commandos would catch fish using their bulky M36 hand grenades. The mini grenades came into service in the seventies. My FOO team also carried the M36s.

 

On one of my frequent patrols with the Commandos, they had expired all their M36s fishing. Ammunition accounting was never an issue. There were always abundant ammo, 7.62mm, 9mm, claymores and M36s.We either returned them the ammo dump for storage or use them. No need to explain for usage or shortage. However there would be a control factor for our 105mm ammo due to logistics. We have to keep a minimum amount of HE and smoke rounds in the gun position and request for replenishments when needed to top up.  Bringing ammo up to the gun position often gave a problem to the BK. We would have to request for additional assault boats and ammo fatigue parties. Sometimes we would use the Alloutte helis for ammo replenishments.

 

I could not disappoint the patrol. We had to have fish for extra messing. My FOO team had six M36 between us. Yes I would use mine to fish. I had seen them do it. Just toss it into the river and call out …grenade.

 

We were at a shallow and narrow river with mud banks on both sides. I informed the Commandos that I was preparing to use my M36. I was near the water edge. All took reasonable distance away from me and the river. I pulled out the M36 plug pin and called out… grenade. I was actually quite excited as I had never thrown a life grenade since cadet days.  But it had seems easy enough, pull the pin and toss as hard and as far as possible, look if you dare, but dive and hit the ground. We would have a long seven seconds for all that. But it was not to be in this case. You don’t throw as hard and as far. You throw into the middle of the river.

 

I threw my M36, called out grenade, and watched it fall into the far bank on the mud. Not into the middle of the river. My heart stopped and I literally froze, mouth opened, no sounds left I presumed. It happened so fast, seven seconds is fast I assure you. I went blank and I suppose I hit the ground for cover with my instinct. There was a loud explosion and I felt the splinters over my head and shattering the mangrove trees behind me.

 

My patrol did not need any enemy with me around. We were all shell shocked, but regained our composure quickly. Luckily there were no casualties.  I felt bad, apologized to all and swore I would never throw another grenade again. Our Commando officer calmly said that we would like to eat fish and not frogs, so try to throw the grenade into the water next time and not on the bank. I would never want to carry another grenade again for the rest of my career.

 

I had learnt my lesson and this had caused a phobia until today. I never fished again. Not even using another ingenious method I had learnt from the Armoured Corp. But that’s another story for later. Lets give the fish a fighting chance, as if being blown to bits by the M36 wasn’t enough.

 

FOO

The GPO in a single gun position during Confrontation, had many additional responsibilities and was multi tasked. He was the only gunner officer in the position, with an infantry company or platoon to cover a sector of operations on Sebatik Island. One of the many tasks would be accompanying FOO to the many infantry patrols and sometimes Commando patrols in deep recognizance in our areas of interest.

 

Our SOPs for gun positions had catered for auto pilot, when the GPO was away from the gun position. Whilst the gun sergeant would always remain as over all in charged, the TAMA Bdr would command the CP. He would act as GPO ordering fire orders to the guns. TAMA was Technical Assistant Malaysian Artillery, now called Ballistics data processor (BDP). The whole gun position would act as a close knitted team.

 

My FOO team would include a TAMA and Signaler. Most recces would be about 3 to 4 days out, all within run range. The gun would be loaded and followed our recce plan, laying on pre arranged predicted targets in the sector covered. Sometimes we would register some of those targets. Frequent radio checks were also one of our critical requirements. We moved light with half filled haversacks and patrol packs. Compo rations would be carefully selected and well prepared, with rice precooked.

 

On one particular recce with a small commando patrol, we actually crossed the border and probed a sector which had a known enemy position. It was text book procedures all the way. Radio silence, hand signages, crawling, predetermined RVs and night probes around the enemy location.  Our main mission was to determine enemy strength and enemy route towards our position. We had to determine the exact crossing points along the border, to which we would place a predicted DF target on the crossing areas. I must admit it was no fun doing it, as we were ready to run like hell upon signal to extract or withdraw. We must be as fit and as agile as the Commandos. Missions across the border would always be commanded by a Commando officer, whilst other patrols would be led by at least a Commando sergeant. I was glad that all our missions were successful and without any incident. We were competent to be part of a deep penetration mission.

 

 

It was all in a day’s work for the GPO during Confrontation.

 

FINAL CALL FOR THE GUNNERS CLUB GATHERING

DATE: 19TH DECEMBER 2009
TIME: 0930 HRS
EVENT: LAUNCH OF GUNNERS CLUB
PLACE: DEWAN SERBAGUNA MASJID MUADZ BIN JABAL, PERSIARAN SETIAWANGSA,
TAMAN SETIAWANGSA,54200, KUALA LUMPUR

Pay Day

         Regimental pay day was the most looked forward day. It was more so in Taiping and in the sixties, when pay was paid in cash. Every regiment had an officer Paymaster seconded from the GSC Corps, assisted by a pay sergeant and each Bty had a pay corporal. But soldiers in the gun Btys were paid directly by Bty officers, and for a good reason too. Monthly pay days were the best days for bonding young officers and ORs. As a young officer we knew every soldier by the way he spent his pay and more so what debts he had incurred. The regimental paymaster paid HQ Bty and all the wives on pay day. Pay for the wives was twice a month. Bty officers, except the BC and BK took turn to pay the men in the Bty. The pay corporal would prepare the monthly nominal pay roll for the Bty. The BK prepared the list for deductibles for Bty funds, PRI, canteen and other utangs.

 

Pay day, which usually took up the whole morning or the afternoon, would be held along the corridors of the Bty lines. Two desks would be placed, one for the Bty paying officer and one for the BK. The soldiers would be given their pay book by the pay corporal, checked against the nominal pay roll. The soldier would march up to the paying officer, smartly salute and with a wide grin stretch out both his hands to receive his pay.  He would count the money and put it into his pocket. He would salute again, would do a left turn, march a couple of steps to the BK desk. He would salute the BK who would tell him his of dues to be paid, which in most cases would be more than half he had just pocketed.

 

The nominal pay roll was prepared to the last Sen. And because we had to pay to every individual, the actual monies would have to be in the correct denominations of 50s, 10s, 5s and 1 Ringgit notes. And also a large amount of coins would be needed. The nominal pay roll must be balanced to the last Sen.

 

It was my turn to pay. I had checked through the nominal pay roll with our Bty pay corporal. Fully satisfied we set off to the bank in town to collect the pay roll. We returned to pay the soldiers. As some of the soldiers would not be able to collect their pay on the same day, special arrangements would be made to pay them separately. Officers would keep the balance of the money until all payments were made and the final amount verified. All should be fine and routine at the end of the pay session, carried over three days. But it was not to be.

 

I panicked. The pay corporal panicked. THE NOMINAL PAY ROLL DID NOT TALLY. We checked again and again over several times. We sweated over the pay books and nominal pay roll and ensured that all soldiers were paid in the exact amount. They were.  We even paraded the soldiers again, but nobody was paid short. AND we still had a surplus of RM20,000.00 in neat 50 Ringgit notes. My troubled mind was sure that somebody was not paid yet. But it could not be as everybody was paid. Do I see the BC? Do I see the BK ? or the regimental paymaster? No. I would have to sort it out myself.

 

As I had received the money directly from the bank officer, I went to the bank to see him, and was he glad to see me. He was short of EXACTLY RM20,000.00 and he had sweated more than me for the past three days. He had paid me extra in error. What an error and I had panicked and lost sleep over it. I had returned the money to the bank officer, in the presence of his manager, like a true officer and gentlemen.

 

The CO and all the other officers came to know of it later, and they were lost for words. I had always had thoughts about it throughout my career and had good feelings for it. I had often wished it to happened again. Would I have done otherwise? RM20,000.00 was a lot of money? Would you ?

 

 

 

A HUMBLE REMINDER

DATE: SATURDAY 19TH DECEMBER 2009

TIME: 0930 HRS

PLACE: DEWAN SERBAGUNA MASJID MUADZ BIN JABAL

PERSIARAN SETIAWANGSA

TAMAN SETIAWANGSA,

54200 KUALA LUMPUR

Spread the word to all Gunners to be there to launch "The Gunners Club".

FIGHTING THE COMMUNIST TERRORISTS - A FIRST HAND VIEW

A week before we received our Agong’s Commission, which was to be held on 14th April 1972, all Royal Military College (RMC), Sungei Besi, Kuala Lumpur graduating officer cadets of Short Service Commission Intake 20 and Regular Commission Intake 14 were required to make our choices on which Corps in the Army we wished to serve. I joined the Malaysian Artilery Regiment (Now known as Royal Artillery Corps) together with 2Lt Mokhtar, 2Lt Hariri, 2Lt Razali, 2Lt Ali, 2Lt Amir Hamzah, 2Lt Hashim, 2Lt Kamaruddin and 2Lt Zahari. The others were 2Lt Haniff and 2Lt Omar Boyce from the regular intake.

Tensions were very high amongst us even though we were all fully trained and equipped and were fully fit and ready to fight the communist terrorists (CTs) face-to-face in both West and East Malaysia. The training we went through was very tough. We were all very anxious to know where each of us was to be posted to especially those of us who had made our choices to join the Infantry, Artillery or the Reconnaissance Corps in the Army, all commonly known as the ‘Fighting Units’ of the Army and sent to the front line. We were repeatedly briefed and reminded about the communist’s atrocities and how ruthless they were and part of our training was to get us all psyched up to defeat them, our national enemy and a threat to our developing nation. We had to stop them from destroying our country and our people to ensure a prosperous and peaceful future for all Malaysians.

I still remember very well the nervous smile of Officer Cadet Elias Ramli, a vertically challenged but stout fellow from Kangar, Perlis who was to be posted to 1 Ranger Battalion in Sarawak, the hotbed of the CTs at that time as well as the sour face of Officer Cadet A. Rahman Koya, a tall and dapper fellow from Rantau Panjang, Kelantan who was posted to 4 Ranger Battalion also based in Sarawak. Officer Cadet Sallehuddin from Penggerang, Johore who joined the Royal Malay Regiment, was another graduating cadet who I noticed was feeling very nervous. About an equal number of officers from our graduating class were sent to units operating near the borders of Malaysia/Thailand and Malaysia/Kalimantan to join the respective fighting units we were posted to. Two hundred graduating cadets were posted to the fighting units and the remaining number of newly commissioned officers was posted to the services and administrative units. I was posted to the 3rd Artillery Regiment in Kuching, Sarawak which was our temporary base and I was there for just over one year. My parents were less than happy when I told them about it. My second stint there, for about one and a half years, was between early 1974 and mid - 1975. Our permanent base was in Kamunting in Taiping, Perak.

Lt. Muda Elias Ramli, Lt Muda A. Rahman Koya and Lt Muda Sallehuddin as well as a few others did not enjoy the privilege of the four-day break we were given between the time after accepting our commissions as 2nd Lieutenants and joining our respective units. They had to pack up immediately and were flown or sent by train or Land Rover trucks to Kuching and to other destinations like Ipoh, Perak, Sungei Petani, Kedah and Bentong, Pahang that afternoon itself upon completing the ‘Passing-Out Parade’. They were to join their colleagues to fight in the country’s jungles due to a shortage of officers, especially in the infantry units, at the front lines in both theatres.

On 15th April 1972, the very first day of active service, we received a very sad news about our first casualty, Lt Muda Sallehuddin, then only 18 years old; the youngest to be commissioned, died after drowning in Rejang River near Sibu during one of the pursuit of terrorists in his unit’s area of operations. Over the years, there were many more casualties, all young men, who were killed, injured, paralysed, maimed or crippled fighting the communist terrorists (CT’s). Some died or injured from gunshot wounds or accidents and some from air crashes after the Nuri helicopters they were in were shot at, all fighting for the country to wipe out the communists. Later, a classmate at RMC Cadet Wing, Lt Fuad Chong from the Engineers Corps, had to have one of his legs amputated after badly injuring it upon stepping on a booby trap in an operation to clear booby traps set up by the CTs in one of the jungles of Perak. A colleage, Lt Raja Musa lost an eye and one of his legs after stepping on a booby trap whilst carrying out his duties as an Artillery FOO (Forward Observation Officer) attached to an infantry platoon. My very good friends, Trooper Suandy, a soldier from the elite Commando Unit (MSSU) and Lt Muda (U) Wee Kong Beng, a co-pilot of a Nuri helicopter, perished in one of the crashes with seven others including the helicopter’s Captain after their aircraft was shot at. In one of the major operations which I was involved in, the Bentong airstrip was even busier than Subang Airport with various types of aircrafts such as the Caribou, Cessna, Nuri and Alloutte aeroplanes and helicopters regularly landing and taking-off every day.

One officer from our batch, 2Lt Basri, an infantry officer from 4 Ranger Regiment, was awarded the Panglima Gagah Berani (PGB) for bravery after successfully leading his platoon to defeat a group of CTs in 1973. This guy had burning red eyes and he always was full of spirit; though he was among the quieter ones at RMC, from his determination and passion shown when competing in team contests and games during our training sessions, I knew that one day he would be a hero. Another officer who was a classmate also by the name of 2Lt Basri from the Royal Engineers Corps, a very affable fellow, was also awarded the PGB for his bravery in clearing mines whilst under enemy fire. He retired last year with the rank of Lt Kol.

I myself had the bad luck of getting involved in an ambush when our supply convoy was attacked not far from our base at Maung Gajah Camp, Gubir in Kedah in 1974 not very far away from the Thai border. It was very rare for an Artillery Gun Troop to be engaged in a fire fight with the enemy. We suffered six casualties comprising soldiers who were assigned as drivers and escorts for the convoy that was attacked. We retaliated with artillery fire after the infantry troops from the camp engaged them and the Recce Escort Unit who were with the convoy also fired their machine guns, their 25mm cannons and their 90mm guns from their Ferret Scout Cars and the V150’s APC’s respectively, but a search and destroy mission carried out by the infantry troops after the last shot was fired rendered nothing except for several blood trails. There was no way to tell whether there were any casualties suffered by the communist’s troop, they must have either escaped via tunnels or to the Thai border.

Another incident was something that happened near Kampung Lallang in the Sungei Siput area in Perak, a small group of CTs, three of them actually, were sighted on a small hill near LP 121 and the field commander ordered to cordon the area with a two-layer shoulder-to-shoulder man-to-man ring surrounding the ‘target’ with the aim to capture the enemies alive instead of killing them. When we closed into the target, the enemies were nowhere to be seen and we were all puzzled. We were very sure that the sighting, based on our ‘intelligence’ report which was categorised as A1 and was accurate. That led to many theories and one was that they escaped via a tunnel somewhere in the jungle and the other was that these people had special powers and could hide behind leaves. We searched but did not find any tunnel. Many of us however, believed in the latter theory.



'An Artillery Troop equipped with the M102 105mm Howitzer in the 'Position Ready' position'. Firing starts upon orders received from the GPO'..



'An Artillery Troop Command Post showing the Gun Position Officer
(GPO) giving Firing Orders using a Megaphone'.

Life in the Army then was very tough and in my case, I spent most of my active military service in the country’s jungles in Sarawak, Sabah, Perak, Kedah and Pahang, sometimes at a stretch for as long as six months. Of course, there were many like me. We young officers who were still bachelors and were considered by our superiors that leaving us in the jungle for a long stretch of time didn’t really matter. The married officers who had families had shorter stints. Sometimes, I did feel angry with myself with a tinge of regret for joining the Army instead of one of the universities like many of my classmates in secondary school did, and be able to sleep on very comfortable Dunlopillo latex foam mattresses, enjoy good food, the girls and the bright lights of the city.

We slept on makeshift tents created using our rubber ‘poncos’ from branches of small trees and depending on the duty roster, we either slept during the day or at night. Sometimes, when there was not enough time, we just slept on the ground with the ponco used as a ground sheet. As we were always on the move, the tents had to be dismantled and the area cleared after every short stay of between two and three days. Our food was the dry rations supplied to us and sometimes, when we camped near rivers, we did manage to get fish and fresh vegetables. There were, among the soldiers, some very good cooks who were able to prepare delicious dishes from these fish, vegetables and some other fresh leaves eaten fresh like ‘ulams’. It was quite normal for us to camp on high ground near flowing rivers as the clean waters allowed us to bathe and do plenty of cleaning, cooking and washing. During the annual but short Hari Raya Aidil Fitri periods, the food spread was quite large and we had lemangs, ketupats, rendangs and a good variety of kueh raya and that could last up to a week. Sometimes we found photos of young girls of about our age; they were volunteers who helped prepare the food packs who must have cheekily placed them in those packs just to cheer us up and that actually did the trick. However, morale of the soldiers was high and we were always supporting and comforting each other particularly when we received sad and devastating news about casualties and deaths of our friends and colleagues. Every time I heard news like these, I felt very angry, frustrated and most vengeful. I felt like, if I ever happened to encounter them, I would catch them, wring their necks until they cannot breathe; hang them by their feet and make them suffer enough before shooting them. I had books and past newspapers delivered to me by my very considerate Commanding Officer, Lt Col. John Hew Deng Onn (the late Maj. Gen. Dato' Johan Hew), of and on and I read them all from cover to cover over and over again; including all the advertisements and notices in the case of newspapers, until the next delivery. The news I read were sometimes a week old at best. Other reading materials included the Quran and some kitabs.

The mode of operations those days required each infantry brigade involved in the search and destruction of CTs in both East Malaysia and the peninsula to have one three-gun M102 105 mm Gun Howitzers equipped artillery troop attached to them in the many operations to flush out CTsfrom their hideouts and we were engaged in many harassing fire missions and fired hundreds of rounds of high explosive ammunitions, normally at night, at all the areas suspected to be CTs hideouts but we never knew if there were any casualties amongst them. However, all the time, search and destroy operations carried out after the guns ceased firing rendered zero findings. Our jungles are very thick with severely undulating grounds and many meandering big and small rivers taking water from the mountains and hills down and it was very difficult and dangerous to carry out search and destroy operations. The situation was a lot worse when it rained and we had to face inclement weather quite regularly. The Air Force also assisted in the operations either by providing airlifting operations using Nuris to fly in the troops, guns and supplies to the designated gun positions in the heart of our jungles in Perak, Kedah, Pahang, Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak which were not accessible by road or foot as well as ‘Air Observation Posts’ (Air OPs), an air reconnaissance artillery gun control operations using the smaller Alloutte helicopters. Communications were by means of fairly obsolete equipment and the PRK 55 mobile signal units. Most of the times we took turns to crank the batteries by hand continuously to provide power for the signal equipment because communications had to be maintained uninterrupted for twenty four hours everyday. Despite the shortcomings, we still managed it. Orientation was assisted by accurate topographical maps, compasses, rulers and protractors.

Only the CPM members would know the number of casualties they suffered.

In all of our further and advanced training sessions, courses, briefings and debriefings, we were told and reminded that our enemies were members of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and their two illegal organisations viz. the Malayan National Liberation Army MNLA, a group formed for their armed struggle and the Malayan National Liberation League (MNLL). Another organisation was the CPM Marxist-Leninist Faction (CPMML) was which was responsible for the constitutional struggle and certain aspects of the illegal or ‘militant’ struggle and there was also the Malayan Communist Youth League (MCYL) recruited from youths aged between fifteen and thirty years of age. In East Malaysia, we were fighting against the North Kalimantan Communist Party (which had no direct links with the Malayan Communist Party), an offshoot of the Clandestine Communist Organisation, that was waging a guerrilla campaign against the government. Names like Chin Peng, the CPM Secretary General, Rashid Mydin, Abdullah CD, Wahi Annuar, Shamsiah Fakih, Siu Cheong alias Ah Soo, P. V. Sharma, Ah Hoi alias Chen Jui, Sun Chek, Lim Chau, Soh Chee Peng alias Shi Meng and Musa Ahmad were regularly mentioned. They were not fighting to liberate the country, which they claimed, but their aim was to form a communist republic to be known as the Malayan Peoples Republic and anyone who went against them, regardless of race or religion, shall be killed. We lost many soldiers, mostly young Malay soldiers (there were very few Chinese, Indian and people of other races in the Army then), and we also received news that some civilians were also killed. I also remember reading a report about the communists and in the early 50’s, not long after the Japanese surrendered, and the 60’s, where killings were also carried out in towns like Muar, Kluang, Ipoh and Sungei Petani, among others. In 1971, the then IGP Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Hashim was assassinated at the junction of Lorong Weld and Jalan Tun Perak Kuala Lumpur on 4 June 1974; his driver was also killed and about sixteen months later, another senior police officer, Perak CPO Tan Sri Khoo Chong Kong was gunned down together with his driver at midday in Ipoh, Perak. These assassinations were carried out by members of the 1st Mobile Squad of the CPMML, a squad formed to carry out assassinations. Two other planned assassinations of the then Chief of Armed Forces Staff, General Tan Sri Ibrahim Ismail (now Tun) and the then Singapore Commissioner of Police, Tan Sri Tan Teik Khim, were thwarted after two of their members were arrested and sentenced to death for the murders they committed earlier.

I was promoted to Captain in 1976 and left the Army in 1979 to pursue other interests after feeling fully satisfied and my ambition fulfilled and that I have done my duty and contributed in whatever miniscule way to the continued peace and prosperity of our most beloved country. In my relatively short tenure in the Army, I served the 1st Brigade, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Brigade, 4th Brigade, 5th Brigade, 6th Brigade, 8th Brigade and RASCOM, Rajang Security Command and my last attachment was with the 3rd Field Ambulance in Kinrara, Selangor.

Many of my colleagues from the Royal Military College, Sungei Besi April 1972 graduating class remained and made the Army or the Air Force their career but now, most have retired leaving only a very small number left and are holding very senior ranks and positions either in the Army or the Air Force and they are my very close friends who are still flying our flag such as Lt. Jen. Dato’ Seri Bashir, the Deputy Chief of the Air Force, Lt. Jen. Dato’ Wan Abu Bakar, Army, Maj Jen Dato’ Mokhtar Parman, Army, Maj. Jen Dato’ Che Yahya, Air Force and Brig. Jen. Dato' Che' Hasni, Army. The others who are still in active service are holding ranks no less than full Colonels either in the Army or the Air Force.

The communists were trained, both physically and mentally, to be brutal, ruthless and unsympathetic and they’d kill just anyone whom they wanted to and who had come in their way. Killing, to them, was a duty and it was like food for them and they did it without feeling even an iota of guilt. They not only caused havoc in the jungles but also in our cities. They were a terrible lot!

God save us if they were to take over and rule this country.

No, for whatever reasons, we must never allow Chin Peng or any of the still surviving members of the CPM to return to this country. We must not give them even a modicum of a chance, they are a single minded people and ferocity and atrocities are nothing to them. Please do not let the peace and harmony we Malaysians are now enjoying be spoilt. They are still a terrible lot and they are all traitors!

We, former members of the security forces, can still feel the hurt and pain both physically and emotionally whenever we recall the terrifying years dealing with them.

Now Chin Peng has apologised. BUT IT’S STILL JUST NOT ACCEPTABLE!