Soldiers on a different front line

Deploying military personnel on the streets to help enforce Covid-19 SOP has enabled the armed forces to show a side not often seen by the Malaysian public.

IT is always a pleasure to address members of our armed forces, an institution about which many Malaysians have misconceptions.

I have been lucky to have had contact with many soldiers, sailors and airmen, being an Honorary Major in Regiment 508 of the Territorial Army (Askar Wataniah) and having joined events of the Royal Signals Regiment (RSD) and Royal Electric & Mechanical Engineer Corps (JLJ) of which my father is Colonel-in-Chief.

I have great memories too of attending the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (Lima) where I boarded KD Tunku Abdul Rahman and met our submariners; and of the Firepower Exercise at Gemas, Negri Sembilan, where I got to see our MiG-29s and Astros II in action. A knowledge of our assets provides useful context when our PT-91Ms and Adnans roll past during Merdeka Day parades.

In considering social issues, I reflected upon my family’s interactions with the military over several generations.

My great-great-great-grandfather Yamtuan Antah led his troops into battle, fighting in the War of Bukit Putus, Negri Sembilan, in 1875 (which was ferocious enough to see a Victoria Cross being awarded on the British side). His son Tuanku Muhammad was one of the Rulers who urged the creation of the Royal Malay Regiment, whose original home in Port Dickson continues to ensure Negri Sembilan’s strong association with the army.

My great-grandfather Tuanku Abdul Rahman served in the Malayan Volunteer Infantry and later became the first Supreme Commander of the Malayan Armed Forces when he became Yang di-Pertuan Agong, while my grandfather Tuanku Munawir also served in the Home Guard.

Each of these involvements illuminate the political and geopolitical contexts of their times: British imperial strategy shifting from conflict to accommodation, to decolonisation and independence, and the cooperative fight against communists thereafter.

In 2021, amidst a global pandemic, the threat of climate change and economic uncertainty, the role of the military once again must take cognisance of these contexts. These influence what Malaysians care about, expressed through the traditional and new media: alongside head-on socio-political debate are celebrity product endorsements and their dancing kids.

But amidst the ever-evolving vocabulary of online life, it is easy to glimpse the social issues confronting Malaysians. Issues of race and religion, sexism and domestic abuse, poverty and inequality,

job security and unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, gambling and prostitution, the environment and urban development, and concerns over refugees and the stateless.

Some of these issues attract explicit attention, but others are more subtle, or embedded in everyday speech. Throughout the movement control order periods over the past year, some of these issues have taken a greater visibility and urgency.

Thankfully, the growth and solidification of civil society has provided space for these issues to be discussed and debated using facts, evidence, reasoning and analysis.

This is what a healthy democracy is about: for people with different ideas and opinions to exchange views on a topic and find a way to live better together, or even to disagree but still accept each other as being 100% Malaysian, just with different ideas of how to achieve a better future.

A key part of this is giving further substance to the vision of shared prosperity that the government has championed. This should encompass an understanding of how our institutions work for us and,

crucially, educating the next generation on their origin and function: from Parliament and the police to the election commission and so forth.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I recall concern being voiced by fellow Malaysians – especially those who might be called “urban liberals” – that military personnel should not be on the streets to help enforce the new restrictions. But as it turns out, it has become an opportunity for the armed forces to show a side not often seen by the Malaysian public: in being on the front line, risking their own health, soldiers have become humanised and appreciated.

I suggest that highlighting the historical contributions made towards fighting communist terrorism, and participation in UN-mandated peacekeeping around the world, would further combat negative assumptions about our armed forces.

Indeed, the tenor of the questions now show that as much as you wear your uniform proudly, you are also caring and concerned citizens, and not mere instruments of the state. As you move further up the ranks, and as the relationship between the military, government and other stakeholders evolves –continuing the momentum created by the first ever Defence White Paper last year – I hope that the constitutional role of the armed forces continues to prosper alongside other institutions.

This article is distilled from the author’s speech and interactive session with Lieutenant Colonels attending the Malaysian Armed Forces Defence College on March 24,2021. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.