Previously, the anniversary of the historic four-day battle, which dealt the Japanese a severe blow, came and went with barely a murmur.

However, various quarters remain confused over the reluctance of the Malaysian government to observe a Remembrance Day for the 1,300 foreign defenders.

The fact is, since Malaya was not prepared to defend itself from the marauding southbound Japanese army, no Malayans were involved in the fierce combat.

For the first time, foreign dignitaries, Malaysian armed forces veterans, historians and representatives of various organisations will gather this morning at the site of the battlefield in Green Ridge, Kampar, to honour the foreign troops.

The push to gazette 6.5 hectares on Green Ridge as an historical site and to build a war memorial there will gain momentum with Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia, B N Reddy and the Malaysian Armed Forces Sikh Veterans’ Association taking a lead role.

With India in the forefront to establish a memorial, there still remains the question why a British memorial was not erected at the battlefield.

More than a moment of silence and wreaths, a war memorial will bring the forgotten heroism of the foreign soldiers back into the narrative of World War II and provide an understanding of a global history of terrible violence.

Has acknowledging such difficult parts of the past led to history becoming a political football in Malaysia?

The Battle of Kampar demands national recognition, said Malaysian Armed Forces Sikh Veterans’ Association president, Major (Rtd) Baldev Singh.

Allied troops prepared their defences in a week and fought furiously from Dec 30, 1941 to Jan 2, 1942 to shame a superior Japanese army division of 4,000 soldiers.

Around 500 soldiers from both sides were reportedly killed and it was the first serious defeat the Japanese experienced in their Malayan campaign.

The combined troops of the British Royal Leicestershire and East Surrey regiments, as well as the 11th Indian infantry division, comprised a force whose courage was as remarkable as its diversity.

The Indians, who included Sikhs from the Jat-Punjab Regiment, fought valiantly alongside the British even when the struggle for India’s freedom from British rule was at its most incendiary.

They were among the thousands of sepoys who travelled across the world to fight for king and country – a king who wasn’t from their land and a country which they’d probably never seen.

In the end, a tactical David denied a ruthless Goliath of the intention to capture Kampar as a new year’s gift to Emperor Hirohito and stalled their invasion of south Malaya and Singapore.

Why is it so powerful to tell the story of the Battle of Kampar?

Baldev imagines a war memorial with the graves of Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus side by side, “just as they had fought side by side”.

“Illustrating a shared history, one based on unity, freedom, sacrifices and comradeship shows that people of all faiths and backgrounds can unite in the name of freedom.

“More will know that soldiers of various ethnicities, races and faiths fought in the Battle of Kampar for the freedoms Malaysians enjoy today,” he said.

Baldev said this was compelling at a time when questions were raised about loyalty and identity, about who genuinely belongs to this country and about the nation’s history.

On the proposed war memorial, Baldev said bureaucratic roadblocks stood in the way from 10 years ago when visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his intention of building a monument with a pledge of RM10 million.

Efforts to gazette the proposed land as an historical site on Green Ridge, atop the 1,233-metre limestone mountain, Gunung Bujang Melaka, had gone through four governments, he said.

Baldev said Green Ridge was now in the hands of a private developer and negotiations were underway for a land swap for the site of the war memorial.

The nearby Thompson and Cemetery ridges, which were also part of the Battle of Kampar, have been developed.

During the war, Green Ridge was a strategic point for artillery bombardment that thwarted the Japanese from repairing the dynamited Kuala Dipang iron bridge over Sungai Kampar and five other bridges further down the road to Kampar.

Machine gun emplacements, mortar pits, artillery observation posts and communication trenches are today found at the ridge, with the Save Green Ridge group carrying out works to ensure these structures resemble the ones in the past.

Major (Rtd) Bhagwan Singh Virik, 72, another army veteran spearheading efforts for the war memorial, said he remembered finding military relics at Green Ridge as a kid growing up in the area.

Bhagwan said in the 1960s, he and his teacher, Chye Kooi Loong, found helmets with bullet holes and other items soldiers carried with them, and set up a mini museum at the Anglo-Chinese School in Kampar.

He said it was Chye, aged 12 when the war broke out, who first fought for Green Ridge to be recognised and preserved as a war memorial.

When Chye died at the age of 85 in 2014, Bhagwan said he was determined to keep his legacy alive.

“We should not allow the Battle of Kampar to disappear into the mists of history because the defenders gave their today for our tomorrow,” he said.

“All those brave men should be remembered, wherever they came from, and we must show the younger generation that war destroys everything,” said Bhagwan, whose father was killed during the separation of Punjab in 1947.

“Unfortunately, politics sometimes gets in the way of normal human behaviour,” he added.