SUDARJO sill keeps the old letter in the drawer of an old cupboard on the second floor of his house in Kampung Sri Mupakat Kolong Dua, Sungai Tengah, North Kuching, in Sarawak. Although only a piece of old, shriveled paper the size of a page from a writing book, the letter means a lot to the 57-year-old retiree of the Pasukan Rela Malaysia (Malaysian Volunteer Corps) for it brings the memory of his ancestral roots in Java.

The letter relates that