Armed Forces Veterans Are Already In Protest With Or Without Any Perhimpunan

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 I received this last nite via WhatsApp. I have purposely left out the date and location. Dont know who wrote this but it has been in the Media. 
Hari saya luangkan masa setengah hari membawa pemberita dari Malaysiakini bertemu dengan seorang bekas tentera kapt juruterbang Caribou (bekas Kapt Joyraimi) yang sekarang mencari rezeki memungut barang lusuh. Panjang temu bual tadi. Pastinya cerita yang akan keluar nanti sungguh akan menghayat hati.
Kapt Joraimi bersetuju untuk menderma canvas putih yang dia ada untuk kita buat banner perhimpunan. Tapi oleh kerana saya naik motor, saya akan ambil canvas itu kemudian.

Mej Kalam Pie TUDM (Bersara) juga bersama kami.

Selepas itu *ASP O_ _r dari IPK _ _ _* telefon saya tentang perhimpunan Aman. Kami berbincang selama lebih sejam.

Beliau memberi tahu saya bahawa *PDRM tidak benarkan veteran berhimpun di _ _ _ _* dan dia merayu pada saya supaya menghantar *memorandum sahaja ke pada PM*. Dia memberi tahu saya jika veteran meneruskan perhimpunan ini, ianya akan menjejaskan kedudukan PM yang baru dan dia telah cuba buat macam-macam untuk kebajikan rakyat seperti membenarkan rakyat mengeluarkan wang KWSP.

Saya beritahu ASP itu, pertama sekali kami tidak boleh batalkan hasrat kami dan kami akan teruskan perhimpunan ini. Saya beri tahu kepada beliau bahawa saya faham tanggungjawab saya sebagai rakyat dan saya telah baca isi kandungan perkara 10 Perlembagaan Persekutuan, Akta Perhimpunan Aman, Akta Polis, Akta Hasutan, Akta Multimedia dan peraturan-peraturan lain yang berkaitan. Kami akan patuh undang-undang negara dan akur kepada nasihat polis yang munasabah.

Saya juga memberi tahu ASP itu dia ada lah penjawat awam yang sepatutnya tidak cuba cakap memihak kepada kepentingan politik seseorang walaupun orang itu adalah PM.

Saya beritahu dia, saya faham dan hormat dia menjalankan tugasnya sebagai seorang pegawai polis tetapi saya harap dia menjalankan tugasnya menurut undang-undang dan bukannya atas tekanan orang politik. Saya juga beritahu dia saya faham tugas rumit polis dalam isu ini kerana saya juga dari keluarga polis, arwah bapa saya pun pernah jadi lapan Ketua Polis Negeri termasuk Sabah dan Sarawak dan bersara sebagai pengarah keselamatan dalam negeri dan pertahanan awam di Bukit Aman. Dua orang anak saya pun dalam pasukan Polis.

Saya beritahu dia, saya hormat kepada PM, tetapi saya tidak akan berjumpa dengan PM kerana saya telah berjumpa dengan ramai orang pemimpin-pemimpin semenjak 8 tahun saya berjuang (saya beritahu satu persatu pemimpin-pemimpin negara yang saya telah jumpa dari kerajaan BN, PH, PN hinggalah sekarang). Saya juga beritahu saya telah juga berjumpa wakil Raja-Raja Melayu. Saya beritahu dia, PM sekarang juga adalah mantan menhan yang lepas. Apa gunanya saya serah memorandum tuntutan kepada PM kalau PM pun dah tahu apa kehendak kami? Saya beritahu ASP itu jika PM takut terhadap kesan perhimpunan ini, sepatutnya PM yang panggil saya untuk bertemu dengan dia dan bukan sebaliknya.

Saya juga memberi tahu ASP itu nasib veteran ATM tidak sama seperti nasib pesara polis. Tetapi saya percaya pesara polis juga tertekan dengan kadar kenaikan pencen 2% yang bertentangan dengan Perlembagaan Persekutuan.

Saya bertanya balik kepada ASP O--r *jika polis tidak benarkan kami berhimpun di ---, di mana polis nak cadangankan perhimpunan kami patut di lakukan?*

ASP O--r memberi tahu saya polis mungkin luluskan jika perhimpunan itu di buat di *--- ---*. Saya beritahu dia, saya harap polis tidak akan batal lokasi kami di saat terakhir kerana ramai veteran sudah berumur. Dia kata tidak mungkin polis akan berbuat demikian. Dia juga cadang buat perhimpunan di ---.

Saya juga memberi tahu ASP O--r *saya tidak mahu insiden ketegangan diantara pihak polis denga veteran berlaku.* Saya minta polis jangan bertindak keras dengan kami sebab walaupun mereka in agak tua tapi masih bersemangat tentera. Saya boleh kawal ahli veteran saya, walaupun yang hard core sekiranya polis juga dapat kawal tindakan mereka..

Banyak lagi isu yang kami bincang dan saya dapati ASP O--r bersetuju dengan semua apa yang saya nyatakan pada beliau.

Apa2 pun ASP O--r minta saya buat permohonan kebenaran secepat mungkin kerana katanya Ketua Polis --- sekarang sangat garang. Saya beritahu dia saya tidak risau atas garangnya dia selagi kita boleh hormat satu sama lain.

Sekian serba sedikit cerita saya hari ini...

Oh yang baru sebentar tadi veteran TUDM dari Pulau Pinang, grup V komando dan VTD dari Johor memberi sokongan pada saya dan akan datang untuk perhimpunan ---.

My Comments:
The ex-Caribou pilot survives by collecting recyclable materials. This is sad. There are about 200,000 Armed Forces veterans in the country. They survive on their military pensions which they are complaining is not enough.
The vast majority of our veterans are from the lower ranks. Hence they have very little marketable skills. Most junior ranks retire from active duty at about 40 years of age.
 


 
In reality at about age 40 they are thrown out into the real world with little marketable skills. In the past many of them ended up as mini-bus drivers, security guards and such. That ex-Caribou pilot is in the recycling business. He collects barang lusuh or used goods, 2nd hand goods, recyclable materials etc. Hence they depend heavily on their military pension which they say is not enough.
I once made a written proposal to a Minister of Defence (who I was "advising" at that time - for a short time of a few months only).
My suggestion was that the entire Malaysian Armed Forces follow the Israeli, American and Singaporean model where an already disciplined and well organised group of people  be looked at as a valuable source of human capital which can be chanelled into the economy upon leaving the Armed Forces. 
But before that can be achieved they must be well trained in multiple disciplines which will make them useful and sought after manpower in the economy. Or they can have enough skills to become entrepreneurs. 
And I made a suggestion on how this can be achieved without the government having to spend extra one sen of the Defense budget.
The trick lies in mandatory rotation of military personnel during their service careers to perform multi-tasks in the Army and thus become multi skilled. And the entire armd forces must be technically oriented.
For example a foot soldier  must not only go on jungle patrols and march in parades but he must have the technical skills to repair and maintain all his equipment - including his guns, pistols, bullets, explosives, trucks and jeeps. This should include experience in the workshops, using machine tools etc.

And every (say) two years he must be mandatorily rotated to other parts of the Army like the mechanised divisions, the artillery regiments, the signals regiment, the logistics regiments, the engineering regiment etc where the soldier will pick up new skills in heavy equipment maintenance, machine tooling, electronics, bridge building, road and other construction, ballistics, food and beverage preparation and supplies etc. Each posting should last two years to enable the soldier to become profficient in his new skills. 
And this should be done mandatorily also in the Navy and the Air Force. There should be a constant rotation of personnel so that they become multi-disciplined in their skill sets. 

In this way ALL our Armed Forces personnel will not only know how to shoot guns but they will know how to repair, maintain and manage high technology equipment and also how to manage and feed an Army. I can assure you with such a multiplicity of skills our Armed Forces personnel will be highly sought after in the private sector.
Our ex-Army veteran not only can drive a truck but he will also have the skills to repair and overhaul  truck engines.

This is the situation in the United States Army, the Israeli Defense Forces and the Singapore Military. Their soldiers are well trained and exposed to multiple disciplines and multi-tasking. They usually have above average skill sets that are highly sought after by private industry. So after leaving the Armed Forces many of their ex-armed forces personnel get good jobs or become tech entrepreneurs.

To stretch this even more - to increase their skill sets even more and widen and deepen our national pool of human capital the soldiers, sailors, airforce personnel should also be given options to switch services after say 10 years. So after 10 years a soldier in the Army can opt to switch to the Navy or Airforce. And go through the entire rotation process again. Imagine besides being able to repair, maintain and overhaul a tank a soldier can also learn how to fix jet engines and helicopters. This will improve their skill sets even more.

And all this can be done without  having to spend an extra one sen in our Defence budget.  
The Armed Forces are a ready made, well organised and a well disciplined pool of manpower.   They have so much more potential to contribute to themselves and to the nation.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
By Syed Akbar Ali 

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