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Letter in NST: The need for a racially balanced army

The New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur 26 December 2002, Letters, p9

Leaders must ensure Malaysia has a racially balanced army

by Dato' Abdullah Samsudin

IT IS VERY INTERESTING to note that more Malaysians have come to notice that there are few non-Malays in the Malaysian armed forces and are interested in correcting this matter.

Recruiting Chinese youths to serve in the armed forces is a 50-year-old problem.

The Chinese have a saying "Only bad sons become soldiers". Chinese parents do not like their sons to handle dangerous weapons. Chinese mothers worry that their sons will not be able to eat their favourite food while serving in the armed forces.

Indian parents feel that having invested so much money in their son's education, they should bring home more money in terms of salary and dowry.

Armed forces personnel are not warmly regarded in the Indian community here, unlike in India where employment in the armed forces is greated respected.

On the whole, there is little or no encouragement from the Chinese and Indian parents for their sons to join the military. Many Indians above the age of 18 become soldiers against the wishes of their parents.

I was a member of the recruting team of the Federation Regiment in August 1952. The team was led by a very experienced who had done years of recruiting for the Indian army.

The target was to get 400 Chinese, 200 Malay and 200 others -- Indians, Eurasians, Punjabis, and Ceylonese.

After visiting Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh, the team could not get many Chinese recruits, even with the support of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA). This was reported to General Templer.

I head the General say to the Major: "I don't care how you do it. If you cannot get them, I will send you home."

The team then visited Penang and Malacca. This time, any Chinese youth standing ten metres from the recruiting office was persuaded to join the Federation Regiment.

The target of 400 Chinese was eventually achieved. However, absenteeism and desertions by the Chinese soldiers were very common.

The officers in the Federation Regiment became very experienced in setting up district court martials to try the offenders.

I was given the chance to be both prosecuting and defending officer, but I was more popular as a defending officer.

The plea for mitigation was always to return home to sort out family problems and look after the old parents.

When the Malayan Government took over the responsibility for defence in 1957, the police recommended the dismissal of about 70 Chinese soldiers who had an adverse personal security background.

After this mass dismissal of Chinese soldiers, the Chinese youth were reluctant to join the Federation Regiment.

The current restriction on consumption of alcohol in army camps is another unattractive point.

When I was commanding soldiers, my stand was that I would rather have drunken soldiers in my camps than in the towns.

The system of annual leave in the armed forces is also not popular as one cannot take annual leave as and when required.

For the Malays too, the profession of soldier has lost its glamour. Nowadays we hardly see soldiers in uniform walking in towns like in the good old days.

They hang up their uniforms as soon as they are off duty.

Politically speaking, in a multi-racial society like ours, there should not be an unarmed community or weapons only in the hands of one community, as in the case of Fiji.

Should there be a serious security problem in this global setting and human rights era, this would invite the international community to dispatch foreign troops to the country to protect the unarmed communities.

If we do not wish this to happen, then Malaysian political leaders must ensure that we have a racially balanced military, if necessary even introduce compulsory military service.

The higher national and patriatic considerations have to be presented to all the Malaysian parents.

There are more youths who die on the roads than die serving in the armed forces.

[MGG: Dato' Abdullah does not reveal who he is, but he is a retired lieutenant general whose last post was as director of military intelligence]

Ends