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AS the door opens, a diminutive, silver-haired man welcomes me into the apartment that doubles as his office. Soft-spoken, he offers me a pair of hotel bedroom slippers so I don't have to walk barefoot. Then, grinning, he jokes: “I took these from all the hotels I’ve stayed at!” — a remark that draws easy laughter from both of us.

ON a crisp, sunny winter morning in Sydney’s Kenthurst countryside, my friend Mahendran — a Malaysian who has made Australia his home — pulled me from the comfort of my warm bed with the enticing promise of breakfast.

IN the sweltering heat of July 1952, a young schoolteacher from Batu Pahat, Johor, folded away his lesson plans, turned in his chalks and made a choice that would alter the course of his life — and etch his name into Malaysia’s military history.