MERSING CHRONICLES

Chapter 2 NUR

(Click image above to see a map of the East Asia, South East Asia, and Australia)

JAPAN ELECTS SOCIALIST PRIME MINISTER

February 2nd 2031, Yomiuri Shimbun

Tokyo. 2:00 am. Japan's Election Authority announced the Social Democratic Party as the winner of the 2031 General Election. Its leader, Jinsho Hashimoto, will be the next Prime Minister. Mr Hashimoto is the grandson of ex-Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. Born in 1988, he spent time living in the US and China in his formative years as his father worked for the Toyota Motor Corporation. A charismatic and eloquent leader, he is fluent in English, Mandarin, and Russian as well as his native Japanese. Educated at the prestigious Edogawa Senior High School in Tokyo, he graduated from Tokyo University with a major in political science. He spent two years in Beijing University acquiring his MBA while learning mandarin. Mr Hashimoto has pro-China leanings and is in favor of removing American troops from Japan. "It is time this archaic reliance on the Americans for our defence be abandoned. Japan can secure its borders with closer relations with its neighbors, rather than depend on a nation an ocean away," he was quoted as saying in an interview two years ago.

Paku Point: 30 years ago

April 6, 2050

Pulau Paku is a granitic island 40 km south of Tioman. It wasn't large, 800 m in length and 400 m at its widest. Its main feature was a 1000 ft high column sprouting from its southern end with a 20 foot diameter peak called Paku Point. The island has no permanent human habitation.

During the 2020's when China's military strength grew to a point which alarmed the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) nations, the military of Malaysia and Singapore decided on locating several strategic observation stations in the South China Sea. Pulau Paku was chosen as an ideal location for one of the observation posts because of its spot along a busy shipping lane, its deserted status, and Paku Point. The island is so named because it resembled an upside down nail from afar. Paku is Malay for nail.

An ambitious project began in 2029 to carve out a covert bunker within the island capable of housing two observers for an indefinite period of time. The then Colonel Ahmad Sofi with his Singapore counterpart planned the construction of the structure within Paku Point itself. So secretive was its construction that raw materials were transported to the island during the night. No contractors were used, only soldiers of the Malaysian and Singaporean Armies provided labour. The island was designated a No-Fly zone and its beaches were strewn with signs warning off visitors or risk being shot. After five years and twenty Singaporean millions, it was completed. Col Sofi boasted it had the most advanced listening and monitoring devices in the world at the time, could house two specially trained officers for a period of 6 months without resupply, was self-sustaining with power from the largest thermocouple generator in the world, and batteries to store 20 kWhr. It has no radio for communications and has a hardwired fiber optics connection with the mainland. The entire point of Paku was secrecy.

It was chilly at the peak and the wind was around 50 kph. Nur wrapped his hands around the night vision binoculars scanning the horizon. It was just past midnight and his shift had begun ten minutes ago. He has a mike positioned at his mouth ready to communicate any info that might be relevant to command and control at Kuala Lumpur.

It was a half-moon night and he could see the silhouette of Tioman to the north. To the west he could see the mountains of Kota Tinggi. But Mersing itself was beyond the horizon. To the south was Tinggi and it's 2000 foot peak. Except for fishing boats in the water, no ships could be seen.

These were tension filled days. The Sino-Nippon Alliance had given the Western Navies an ultimatum a month ago to withdraw its Navy out of the South China Sea, China's claimed territorial waters, by April 5th. That deadline passed 30 minutes ago. No consequences were mentioned. Only the words "or else". The US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln had not budged. The task force remained in the South China Sea. Satellite had picked up two Japanese heavy cruisers with their escorts moving towards the east coast of the Malaysian Peninsula a day ago, exactly where he is now. The Singapore and KL HQ were on high alert following the announcement of the ultimatum and now this Japanese naval movement.