Getting non-Malays into Armed Forces

Dec 16: The campaign, to be launched in February, would aim to recruit 4,000 Chinese and Indian youths by 2004, its Youth chief T. Murugiah said today after meeting Armed Forces chief Jen Tan Sri Mohd Zahidi Zainuddin at Mindef today.

Murugiah said Defence Ministry figures he obtained today showed that there were only 198 Chinese and 1,597 Indians among the 86,983 rank and file personnel in the Armed Forces.

"There are about 5,000 Iban rank and file personnel in the Armed Forces." Among the 8,555 officers in the Armed Forces, only 286 are Chinese and 310 Indians.

Murugiah said the very low number of Chinese and Indians in the Armed Forces is alarming and efforts have to be made to encourage more Indians and Chinese to join.

He said the Armed Forces have indicated their support for the campaign and will provide assistance in carrying out recruitment seminars through its recruitment division.

Murugiah said the PPP Youth hopes to enlist as many as possible of its 160,000 members nationwide to support the campaign.

"We will go house to house in the estates and housing areas in cities and towns to distribute the brochures and disseminate information on the Armed Forces to seek new recruits," he said.

"Our first aim would be to tell people that there are a lot of job opportunities available in the Armed Forces to fill positions ranging from mechanics or engineers to doctors and computer programmers." "In addition, we also need to tell people that the salaries and benefits offered by the Armed Forces are comparable, or better in some ways compared to those in other Government services or some areas of the private sector.

"In the Armed Forces, for example, one only needs to serve for 21 years to gain full pension benefits."

(Submitted on 19th December 2002)