General Zulkifeli, World War II is over

'The lower rank officers joined freely to serve the nation, not Umno. You have wronged them and you are the one who betrayed them.'

'How can we be loyal to you if you're disloyal to us?'

Mahaguruboleh: Armed Forces chief General Zulkifeli Mohd Zin should know one point: you are answerable only to the Agong, and no one else. You don't work for the ruling party.

And it is a known fact that in every election, army personnel are forced to vote for BN. Ask some of them and they will tell you they don't even know how the ballot paper looks like. But they have been "voting" for the past God-knows-how-many elections.

Those people you label betrayers are truly betrayers only to your atrocities. They are loyal to the Agong and the rakyat. They have washed off their sins. When will you?

Hati Panas: If the allegations by the army personnel on electoral fraud is not true, it is correct for the general to say it is an act of betrayal.

But what if it is true? Who then is actually betraying the country? It is best for the good general to investigate. If it is true, he doesn't have to admit it to save face. But just stop doing it.

Garrulous Gary: As chief of the armed forces, Zulkifeli should have at least investigated the allegations of vote-stuffing and other irregularities first before he shoots his mouth like that. We have heard from more than one serviceman about these shenanigans.

As he has asked us, we can likewise ask him: if he shows his disloyalty to the country by messing with our electoral system, how can he expect the people who pay his salary to be loyal to the organisation he runs?

Tell The Truth: General, the betrayal is against whom? To you and the likes of you who allegedly gave them instructions to do the despicable? If they are defined as betrayers, they have only done rightly because their loyalty should be to the people.

Now that they know they have done wrong, they are repenting. So what is so wrong about that? You should be ashamed of yourself to accuse them of betrayal.

Khor SE: General Zulkifeli, you do understand that 'threats' are not necessarily only from external forces. Your job, sir, is to ensure that Malaysia is secure from external threats.

But, there is also another 'threat' - an 'internal' one which is beyond your job scope. It is those that plunder, steal, cheat from the rakyat of Malaysia. Those are the ones now clinging on to power in order that their misdeeds are not bought to light.

I do hope you are not one of them.

Rayfire: Zulkifeli, can you deny with evidence that such electoral issues never existed where your army brothers and sisters were forcefully or otherwise made to believe that only BN can ensure their livelihood to the extent of voting for them? No?

I didn't think so. There is no need for people to be loyal to ATM (Armed Forces) unless you get your priorities right.

Malaysiasakit: I have many friends including relatives in the armed forces who tell me that they do not vote during elections. Their votes are given to the commanding officer as a way of expressing loyalty to the forces.

Furthermore, they are told that as soldiers, they must remain apolitical and not support a particular political party. If this is true, I believe the ATM (Armed Forces) is one of the major sources of postal voting fraud in Malaysia.

I am not surprised that Umno's brand of racial and religious politics being perpetrated in the ATM similar what we see in the GLCs. With the exposé, the rot is beginning to stink.

Anonymous_4196: You mean coming forward to report of cheating and election fraud is a form of disloyalty? Do a professional investigation first. Never discount a serious allegation. This is a matter of national security.

I doubt the four army veterans put their integrity on the line just for the fun of it.

Malaysian Born: Let's get this right - the members of the Armed Forces in Malaysia have always been and will always be loyal to king and country. Of this, there should be no doubt. They should be supported and deserve the loyalty and appreciation of the people.

However, this has nothing whatsoever to do with malpractices and wrongdoings on the part of individuals within its ranks senior or otherwise.

When something like this comes up, the institutions should investigate the matters thoroughly and do whatever is needed to rectify the problem.

The response we see here doesn't make any sense. I am unclear what the Armed Forces chief was trying to achieve. If anything, he has made it look even worse. Even if it is untrue, shouldn't they investigate first?

Gerard Samuel Vijayan: The loyalty of the Armed Forces is to the Agong and not to the BN government. If the voting is transparent as claimed:

a) Why are candidates not allowed to campaign in army camps?

b) Why must postal voting take place earlier for all personnel even those not serving in the border areas or on active military duty?

c) Why the counting of postal votes must be done earlier before the rest of the country votes?

d) Why are political party representatives not allowed to witness the casting of postal ballots?

e) Why has the Armed Forces not investigated these allegations until today?

It cannot be that all of its retired personnel who are making these allegations are lying or disloyal when even serving officers have privately made similar allegations of vote rigging.

Anonymous_3e06: What is General Zulkifeli moaning about? Loyalty to whom? The Armed Forces has allegedly been cheating the public by joining hands with Umno rather allowing their men who have been serving the nation to exercise their right to vote for the representatives of their choice. What happen to their rights?

The lower rank officers are not slaves. They joined freely to serve the nation, not Umno. You, general, betrayed their rights. you have wronged them and you are the one who have betrayed them.

Ferdtan: The reading of loyalty by General Zulkifeli is misguided - the Armed Forces should be loyal to the country and the king, not to the BN government. He, as an apolitical military man, is not supposed to indulge in politics, but his statement leaves much to be desired.

He should not dismiss the serious allegations made by his ex-military personnel without due investigation.

Is this the type of chief of armed forces that we are having? You talk of loyalty but what's about your loyalty to stand up for your men to determine the truth - the kind of esprit de corps that the army likes to talk about.

With the stance made by the chief of Armed Forces, we fear the worst: what will happen if Pakatan Rakyat were to win Putrajaya?

Onyourtoes: Loyalty is not blind. Only when loyalty is blind, there is betrayal and treachery. All these people have lots of stars on their shoulders, I wonder whether these are too heavy for them. - Malaysiakini