Landmine Took War Veteran’s Right Eye

The memory of a landmine blast in 1978 still brings tears to 75-year-old former soldier Corporal Salleh Busu. The explosion permanently took his sight in the right eye and badly damaged the left.

Salleh was in his 20s when he joined a bomb-disposal team clearing an area near Gubir, Kedah, along the Malaysia-Thailand border. The operation followed fighting with communist groups. After the battle, his unit received orders to search the area for explosives that could endanger troops.

He said he identified between eight and 10 landmines. One exploded as he tried to clear it. “The explosion injured both my eyes. My right eye immediately lost its sight, while my left eye could still see but not clearly,” he said at his home in Kampung Kubang Tangga, Kuala Terengganu.

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The explosion injured both my eyes. My right eye immediately lost its sight, while my left eye could still see but not clearly.

Salleh spent about a month at Penang Hospital before moving to the Armed Forces Hospital in Kuala Lumpur for more than a year of follow-up treatment. His left-eye vision recovered to around 40%, but his right eye remained blind.

“For a soldier, an incident like that is difficult to forget. But I did not want to stop there because I still wanted to serve and do whatever duties I could,” he said. He joined the Malaysian Armed Forces in 1971 and retired in 1992 after 21 years, including service with the 12th Royal Malay Regiment in Penang and participation in security operations such as Gubir Operation 5 with Thai forces. After the injury, he transferred to the 512 Territorial Army Battalion in Padang Midin, where he worked as an operator.

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For a soldier, an incident like that is difficult to forget. But I did not want to stop there because I still wanted to serve and do whatever duties I could.