KD SRI NEGRI SEMBILAN (1987)

Here is a comprehensive structured notebook based on the provided personal account of Navy Veteran Hj. Zulheimy Ma'amor, detailing his service, operations at Pulau Bidong, and naval history.

Ref: Zulheimy Maamor > 1987: KD Sri Negri Sembilan

On 12 October 1987, I crossed to the west coast. I was drafted to KD SRI NEGRI SEMBILAN, pennant P3146, 12th Squadron Patrol Craft (12th PC), based at Lumut, Perak. She was a different pedigree altogether: built by Vosper Ltd, Portsmouth, England, commissioned on 28 September 1964.

Her first Commanding Officer was Lt Kdr Mohd Zain bin Mohd Salleh — a name every junior sailor knew, because he would later become Chief of Navy in 1977. To serve on a ship that had been his first command felt like stepping into a lineage. The wardroom had a faded commissioning photo. You could see the same gun mounting, same bridge, twenty-three years earlier.

I was posted as Laskar Kanan. In truth, that was a mis-posting. A PC’s complement called for Laskar Kelas 1 for my trade. But the Navy in those days was pragmatic: if you were qualified and available, you went. So I learned quickly. On a PC, rank is less important than whether you know where the emergency steering is without looking.

The Commanding Officer when I was at KD Sri Negri Sembilan was Lt. Mior Rosdi bin Dato' Mior Jaafar, who was also a Navigation Officer when I was onboard KD Ganas at Woodlands, Singapore in 1981.

One of the memories while serving with KD Sri Negeri Sembilan involves patrol duties around Pulau Bidong, Terengganu, the site of the Vietnamese refugee settlement established in 1978.

PULAU BIDONG

Our patrol box often included Pulau Bidong, 45 kilometres off Terengganu. Since 8 August 1978, when 121 Vietnamese landed and were taken in, the island had become a UNHCR transit camp. By June 1979, at its peak, there were 40,000 people on an island barely a kilometre long.

In July 1987, KD Sri Negri Sembilan was tasked to patrol the waters around the island - at that times the largest Vietnamese refugee camp in the world, administered by UNHCR with Malaysian Navy support.

By 1987 the numbers were lower, but the camp was still there — long atap sheds, laundry lines, church and pagoda. We were not there to administer. We were there to watch the water: to deter pirates who preyed on refugee boats, to prevent unauthorised landings, and to report movements.

“From the bridge at 0200, Bidong looked like a small city with no streetlights — cooking fires flickering, dogs barking across water. You could smell the island before you saw it. And you understood: these people had crossed the same sea that was now rocking us to sleep, but for them it was not a patrol.”Station off Bidong — Night Watch

We also saw Cambodian families, including some Khmer Rouge remnants who had drifted after the collapse. The politics were above my pay grade. Our orders were simple: ensure safety of life at sea, and ensure Malaysian sovereignty was respected. We gave water when needed. We shadowed suspicious boats until they turned back.

The pirate threat was real. In the late 70s and early 80s, refugee boats had been attacked in these waters. By ’87 we patrolled with live ammunition and strict searchlight discipline — never illuminating the camp directly, always the sea approaches.

Pulau Bidong in 1987 was not a headline anymore. It was a daily routine of humanity - births, deaths, lessons under trees, letters home that might never arrive.Our job was to keep the sea lane safe and the island supplied.

Diplomatic and Operational Visit to Medan, Indonesia

November brought OSTEX in the Strait of Malacca, followed by a goodwill visit to Indonesia. We sailed in company with KD SERAMPANG (41). Two small PCs in formation, doing manoeuvres that bigger ships would find trivial, but for us it meant everything had to be precise — station keeping at 4 cables in a 3-metre swell is not comfortable.

We berthed at Belawan, the port town 24 kilometres from Medan. Medan in 1987 was — and still is — the largest city in Sumatra: noisy, hot, full of becaks and kretek smoke. For a sailor from Lumut and Kuantan, it felt like another continent, even though it was just across the Strait.

LAKE TOBA

Part of the goodwill programme was a trip inland to Lake Toba — the largest lake in Indonesia, formed in a supervolcano caldera. We went in a bus that had no air-conditioning, through palm estates and Batak villages. The lake itself was vast, like a sea at altitude. We stopped at a market near Parapat.

The incident at Lake Toba

There, one of the sailor from KD Serampang, suddenly became kerasukan — possessed. He shouted, eyes rolled, collapsed among the fruit stalls. The market went quiet. Our chief tried to hold him, but he was strong. An old Batak man pushed through — a bomoh, or datu — and asked us to step back. He spoke softly in Batak, sprinkled water from a bottle, placed his hand on the boy’s forehead.

Within minutes, the crewman calmed, then wept. The bomoh said nothing more, just waved us away. On the bus back, no one joked. The CO later said: “When you are a guest abroad, guard your mouth, guard your manners, guard your thoughts. You are not only representing yourself.” 

That lesson stayed longer than the lake.

Decommissioning and Final Disposition

KD Sri Negri Sembilan was decommissioned by the Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM) and handed over to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (APMM / MMEA), where it was renamed KM Nyireh.

It was transferred to the Department of Marine Parks Malaysia (Jabatan Taman Laut Malaysia) on 30 March 2017.

Artificially reefed (sunken) at the Pulau Payar Marine Park Biodiversity Conservation Site in Kedah on 20 April 2017.

Author Biography: Hj. Zulheimy Ma'amor

Retired Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM) personnel. Served for 16 years, spanning from 1980 to 1996.

Post-Navy Life: Worked for several private firms and organizations post-retirement. He fully retired from active work after undergoing heart bypass surgery in March 2019.

For those who served onboard PC, the smell of bilge and paint stays. 

Hj Zulheimy Maamor

Lembah Keramat, K.L

Update: 11/9/2026: 1.56 p.m