Is BN heading towards para-militarism?
Of recently, we had noticed that most leaders of the Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties are getting closer to the People's Volunteer Corps (Ikatan Relawan Rakyat Malaysia - RELA) and has been actively recruiting component party members and local leaders into the RELA's rank and file.
What the BN chairman, Umno president and prime minister Najib Razak had respond? Najib said it is because of nationalism and this is their way to demonstrate their patriotic spirit in defending the country that they love. But we supposed, it is actually defending the interest of the BN and to ensure its political survival.
Almost everyday, we could see BN leaders going round nationwide trying their very best to rope in all their hardcore members and supporters into RELA and recently, Najib has declared that the membership of this para military force had in fact reached to more than 3 million. We do not know if this figure is accurate or not or if the entire 3 million RELA members are fully active or otherwise.
What is worrying now is BN has in fact turned RELA into some sort of a political security force of its own in order to safeguard its power base come next general elections (GE13). Another major concern here is these increased RELA members recruited from amongst BN component parties are also encouraged to undergo a period of military-type of training of which would include training in handling arms or any other light weapons in the name of "the nation's defense". The other worrying factor is the fact that RELA might soon become a rival para military force to be reckon with because of its current total membership of 3 million, which of course had outnumber the individual branch of the armed force (Army, Navy and Air Force) and even if all the branches of the armed force were to combine in number, still, it could not even reach 3 million as what had RELA achieved today.
Well, not only that, the BN government has enacted and approved the RELA Act in parliament recently which further empowered RELA into many kinds of enforcement duties and responsibilities, including authorization of the use of army ranks within its establishment. The director-general of RELA has effectively became a General, while is deputy was made a Lieutenant-General and as for the rest of the top officials below these two, are also being made Generals, Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels, Majors, Captains and so on.
What really is spoiling the reputation and honour of the military ranks and insignias are these army ranks has been simply awarded to just too many political leaders and personalities at large, particularly of those from the BN component parties.
The home affairs minister is made a Honorary-General, while the ministry's secretary-general was given the rank of Honorary Lieutenant-General. Many of these BN members of parliament or state assemblymen were given the rank of Honorary Brigadier-Generals, while BN constituency coordinators (election candidates defeated in the last general elections) were awarded the rank of Honorary Colonels. Division chairmen of BN component parties are mostly given the ranks of Honorary Majors or Honorary Captains. According to top BN leaders, the reason of awarding honorary military ranks to party leaders and politicians is to "boost the image and membership" of RELA.
Where are the respect to all those real army personnel out there? These army personnel who for decades undergone many kinds of training and hardships, having had to go through all sorts of disciplinary and regulatory orders in order to attain these ranks, but what does all these BN politicians got to hold the ranks of Generals, Colonels or Majors and then wearing the uniforms which are so much similar to that of the military? Simply, they are not fit at all.
If you don't believe this, just pop in to any army camp or barracks and ask any of those army officers or amongst rank and file, they would certainly express their condemnation over such implementation and practices (in RELA). There's no doubt that many retired military officers had also voice their objections over the use of army ranks in RELA and made their concerns known to the defense ministry recently but their worries and objections are being ignored.
Do you know, what the BN is doing now is exactly what is the Arab Baath Socialist Party (Baathist) in Iraq has been doing during the era of President Saddam Hussein. During Saddam's reign in Iraq, he awarded military ranks and divisional commands to many of his top and senior Baathist leaders in order to ensure the party's full control over the Iraqi military. What happened in the end when the United States (US) launched a full-scale invasion on Iraq? These Baathist generals simply went missing just like that having left their posts and commands respectively and in the end those Iraqi armies who had no one to take their orders from had no choice but to surrender to the US forces without even a fight nor a single bullet being shot. This is the result of bringing politics into the ranks of the military.
Apart from that, there is also a similar case during the era of the Nazis in Germany (1932-1945) when the Nazi Party had enlarged its crack troops force called Schutzstaffel (SS) until it became a rival force to the professional German Army (Wehrmacht). So, because of the rising influence of the SS over the Wehrmarcht during the Second World War, it had technically defeats the purpose of German war effort during that time in terms of strategies and command due to vast tactical decisions are being made based on political influence from the top.
History itself is now repeating here in our country. And recently our nation has been threatened by a foreign force and it nearly overran the entire east coast of a state next to a neighbouring country who used to claim that state as one of theirs. Initial decisions to seek and negotiate with this strong foreign force by the BN government were made based on political influence and not on tactical advise from the military, thus the police are being mobilized instead of the army to curb the intrusion of this heavily armed terrorists resulting to the unnecessary deaths of these policemen simply because the home affairs minister wanted to play hero by insisting that those intruders were neither militants nor terrorists.
The question here now, is BN heading towards para-militarism in order to protect their own political interests, come GE13? And if this is the case, is our nation really safe from any external threat or foreign invasion?
What the BN chairman, Umno president and prime minister Najib Razak had respond? Najib said it is because of nationalism and this is their way to demonstrate their patriotic spirit in defending the country that they love. But we supposed, it is actually defending the interest of the BN and to ensure its political survival.
Almost everyday, we could see BN leaders going round nationwide trying their very best to rope in all their hardcore members and supporters into RELA and recently, Najib has declared that the membership of this para military force had in fact reached to more than 3 million. We do not know if this figure is accurate or not or if the entire 3 million RELA members are fully active or otherwise.
What is worrying now is BN has in fact turned RELA into some sort of a political security force of its own in order to safeguard its power base come next general elections (GE13). Another major concern here is these increased RELA members recruited from amongst BN component parties are also encouraged to undergo a period of military-type of training of which would include training in handling arms or any other light weapons in the name of "the nation's defense". The other worrying factor is the fact that RELA might soon become a rival para military force to be reckon with because of its current total membership of 3 million, which of course had outnumber the individual branch of the armed force (Army, Navy and Air Force) and even if all the branches of the armed force were to combine in number, still, it could not even reach 3 million as what had RELA achieved today.
Well, not only that, the BN government has enacted and approved the RELA Act in parliament recently which further empowered RELA into many kinds of enforcement duties and responsibilities, including authorization of the use of army ranks within its establishment. The director-general of RELA has effectively became a General, while is deputy was made a Lieutenant-General and as for the rest of the top officials below these two, are also being made Generals, Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels, Majors, Captains and so on.
What really is spoiling the reputation and honour of the military ranks and insignias are these army ranks has been simply awarded to just too many political leaders and personalities at large, particularly of those from the BN component parties.
The home affairs minister is made a Honorary-General, while the ministry's secretary-general was given the rank of Honorary Lieutenant-General. Many of these BN members of parliament or state assemblymen were given the rank of Honorary Brigadier-Generals, while BN constituency coordinators (election candidates defeated in the last general elections) were awarded the rank of Honorary Colonels. Division chairmen of BN component parties are mostly given the ranks of Honorary Majors or Honorary Captains. According to top BN leaders, the reason of awarding honorary military ranks to party leaders and politicians is to "boost the image and membership" of RELA.
Where are the respect to all those real army personnel out there? These army personnel who for decades undergone many kinds of training and hardships, having had to go through all sorts of disciplinary and regulatory orders in order to attain these ranks, but what does all these BN politicians got to hold the ranks of Generals, Colonels or Majors and then wearing the uniforms which are so much similar to that of the military? Simply, they are not fit at all.
If you don't believe this, just pop in to any army camp or barracks and ask any of those army officers or amongst rank and file, they would certainly express their condemnation over such implementation and practices (in RELA). There's no doubt that many retired military officers had also voice their objections over the use of army ranks in RELA and made their concerns known to the defense ministry recently but their worries and objections are being ignored.
Do you know, what the BN is doing now is exactly what is the Arab Baath Socialist Party (Baathist) in Iraq has been doing during the era of President Saddam Hussein. During Saddam's reign in Iraq, he awarded military ranks and divisional commands to many of his top and senior Baathist leaders in order to ensure the party's full control over the Iraqi military. What happened in the end when the United States (US) launched a full-scale invasion on Iraq? These Baathist generals simply went missing just like that having left their posts and commands respectively and in the end those Iraqi armies who had no one to take their orders from had no choice but to surrender to the US forces without even a fight nor a single bullet being shot. This is the result of bringing politics into the ranks of the military.
Apart from that, there is also a similar case during the era of the Nazis in Germany (1932-1945) when the Nazi Party had enlarged its crack troops force called Schutzstaffel (SS) until it became a rival force to the professional German Army (Wehrmacht). So, because of the rising influence of the SS over the Wehrmarcht during the Second World War, it had technically defeats the purpose of German war effort during that time in terms of strategies and command due to vast tactical decisions are being made based on political influence from the top.
History itself is now repeating here in our country. And recently our nation has been threatened by a foreign force and it nearly overran the entire east coast of a state next to a neighbouring country who used to claim that state as one of theirs. Initial decisions to seek and negotiate with this strong foreign force by the BN government were made based on political influence and not on tactical advise from the military, thus the police are being mobilized instead of the army to curb the intrusion of this heavily armed terrorists resulting to the unnecessary deaths of these policemen simply because the home affairs minister wanted to play hero by insisting that those intruders were neither militants nor terrorists.
The question here now, is BN heading towards para-militarism in order to protect their own political interests, come GE13? And if this is the case, is our nation really safe from any external threat or foreign invasion?
