KUALA LUMPUR: World War 2 heroine Sybil Kathigasu's memorial museum in Papan near Batu Gajah, Perak can be open to more visitors if Malaysians generously donate to keep it going.
Sybil's grand niece, actress and television producer Datin Elaine Daly said Malaysians ought to help cultural activist Law Siak Hong who founded the museum in 2002 at the shophouse which used to be Sybil's clinic.
"He has done a stellar job raising awareness of Sybil's life and struggles by making her shophouse and workplace a memorial museum. However it is not easy for one man to manage it, and consequently it isn't opened regularly, except by appointment," said Elaine at the launch of the new season of TV3 women's talk show Women Talk at Tropicana City Mall in Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya yesterday.
Elaine said that Malaysians needed to honour their unsung heroes and heroines such as Sybil who played an important role in the anti-Japanese resistance and sacrificed her life in the process.
"She is a freedom fighter and we should do our utmost to keep her memory alive, and keeping the museum which is her former clinic is the best way to do so."
Sybil, a nurse and her husband Dr Abdon Clement Kathigasu ran a small clinic in Papan following the bombing of Ipoh on Dec 15, 1941.
Over the course of 20 months leading up to their capture in 1943, the facility doubled as a base for Sybil to aid guerilla fighters resisting the Japanese occupation.
From the shophouse, she covertly supplied soldiers hiding out in the surrounding hills with medical aid and information gleaned from British broadcasts on banned short-wave radio sets.
Sybil later suffered horrendous torture at the hands of the Japanese military police or Kempeitai at the Batu Gajah prison.
She died aged 49 in the United Kingdom in 1948 from injuries sustained during her incarceration.
Sybil was awarded the George Medal by King George VI of the United Kingdom in 1947, several months before she died. She is the only Malaysian woman to have received it.
Elaine played Sybil in the 10-part drama series Apa Dosaku on Astro in 2010. She won the Anugerah Seri Angkasa Best Actress award for her portrayal of Sybil in the historical drama directed by Bernard Chauly.