Australian army commander leads Anzac Day celebrations in Malaysia
25/04/2025
Relatives of Australian military personnel lay wreaths at the Memorial in conjunction with the 2024 Anzac Day ceremony at Sandakan Memorial Park. - File photo/BERNAMA
KUALA LUMPUR: The official visit of the Commander of the Australian Army, Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, AO DSC to Malaysia for five days until April 26, 2025, reflects the long-standing defence ties between the two countries and to lead Anzac Day commemoration events in Sabah and Labuan.
Stuart will officiate the Dawn Ceremony at Sandakan Memorial Park, located on the site of a Second World War prisoner of war (POW) camp, on Anzac Day, which falls on April 25 each year.
"Anzac Day is an opportunity to reflect on the long-standing defence partnership between Australia and Malaysia, which dates back to the Second World War," Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia Danielle Heinecke said in a statement distributed to Bernama on Thursday.
Stuart will be joined by senior representatives of the Government and the Malaysian Armed Forces.
In the same statement, the High Commission said the ceremony commemorated not only the Australian and British soldiers who were held as prisoners of war by the Japanese army, but also the local community who bravely helped and died with them both in the war camps and in the death march to Ranau.
It was one of the worst atrocities ever committed against Australians in the war.
Of the more than 2,400 prisoners still alive in early 1945, only six survived and that was because they escaped into the jungle and were protected by the local community.
Accompanied by Heinecke to Sabah and Labuan, Stuart also paid tribute to the fallen at the Labuan War Cemetery.
"More than 3,900 Australian, allied and local soldiers who bravely fought for the liberation of Sabah and Sarawak between 1942 and 1945 are buried in this cemetery.
"More than half of the tombstones are nameless. The Labuan Memorial respects those whose graves are unknown," the statement said.
Earlier on April 24, Stuart joined senior representatives of the Malaysian Government and Armed Forces at the Kota Kinabalu Anzac Day Ceremony at the North Borneo War Memorial.
It was followed by a visit to the Australian, New Zealand and Australian Military Corps School (SANZAC) Sabah which was established by veterans and their families in 1969.
On the second day of his visit, on 23 April, Stuart attended a roundtable discussion with strategic thinkers at the University of Malaya.
He outlined how Australia navigates its security and defence as an active middle power and discussed non-traditional security threats and responses.
