KUALA TERENGGANU: The name M. Balasundram used to strike fear in the hearts of gangsters when he was a crime-buster, keeping a tight rein on security in major towns in Malaysia, including Kuala Lumpur.
M. Balasundram, a former Penang deputy police chief, died of pneumonia on Thursday at the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) in Kuala Lumpur.
As scores of senior police officers, friends and relatives mourned and came to bid farewell to one of the nation’s most daring officer, his home in Jalan 12/16A, Petaling Jaya was a hive of activity.
His eldest son B. Karunakaren, 56, said the 86-year-old Balasundram had been ill the last few years, after returning to his Petaling Jaya home from Melbourne, Australia.
“My father and mother (Karunacary Arumugam, 85) had come to live with me and my two brothers in Melbourne from 2011.
“However, he was homesick and decided to return to Petaling Jaya after three years. His health took a turn for the worse, thereafter,” said Karunakaren.
He related that Balasundram had joined the force as a probationary inspector in 1950 and rose through the ranks to retire prematurely as the deputy Penang police chief with the rank of assistant commissioner in 1980.
Balasundram is best remembered as the first Federal Reserve Unit commander based in Singapore in 1964.
“After Singapore seceded Malaysia in 1965, he returned to the Malaysia and served in Ipoh and Penang before becoming Terengganu’s deputy police chief in 1972 as a superintendent.
“Three years later, he became Kuala Lumpur crime chief with the same rank, then as Penang deputy police chief in 1979 with the rank of assistant commissioner,” said Karunakaren.
Balasundram, he added, opted for early retirement a year later at 50 and took on the job as chief handicapper with the Malayan Racing Association at the Jalan Ampang turf club (site of the present Kuala Lumpur City Centre), before fully retiring in 1991.
As a crimebuster, Balasundram was in the thick of action involving numerous high-profile cases in Kuala Lumpur in the late 1970s.
Among them was the Japanese Red Army hostage drama at the AIA building in Jalan Ampang; the attempted assassination of the then Police Field Force central brigade commander Tan Sri P. Alagendra; the bombing of the National Monument by communist terrorists; the Ananda Marga bombings of hotels in Kuala Lumpur; and the capture of notorious gangster Botak Chin at a sawmill in Jalan Ipoh.
Meanwhile, Balasundram’s niece Maheshwari Dorai Rajah, a sports stringer with the New Straits Times, described him as “one of the best uncles one can have. He was a darling, very fatherly figure, caring and generous”.
“He was also a sports-loving fan.”
Balasundram is survived by wife Karunacary Arumugam, 85, sons Karunakaren; Shugumar, 55; Shanker, 52; and Sujita, 50.
The family had said that the cortege will leave the home at 11am on Saturday for the MBPJ Crematorium in Jalan 225, Petaling Jaya.