“Not unpatriotic but being stagnant is why non-Malays steer clear from armed forces, civil service”

 

MERITOCRACY alludes to a society governed by people selected according to merit.

However, in Malaysia, the very mention of this word sends certain right-leaning nationalists into meltdown, equating the term with the dilution of Malay rights.

This perspective is further distorted with twisted narratives such as “non-Malays are not willing to serve in civil service or armed forces as they are unpatriotic”.

With the armed forces at the centre of public attention due to several high-profile corruption cases, there have been renewed calls to encourage more non-Malays to enlist.

However, it has been claimed that the real reason for lacklustre non-Malay enlistment is down to the fact that non-Malay servicemen are often overlooked, bypassed or ignored when it comes to promotions.

Recognition and reward for jobs well done are simply not forthcoming for this demographic, according to a Facebook post shared by SMK King George V Seremban alumnus Maha Teh.

Prevalent or isolated evidence?

It shared a post by one Alwyn Lau (which has since been deleted) that recounts the experience of one Major (Rtd) Warren Lau who in 1968 was among a group of non-Malay students from the Federation (now Royal) Military College who joined the Armed Forces as engineering cadets immediately after his Cambridge Higher School Certificate (HSC).

Lau and his peers were sent to the Universiti Malaya (UM) where they graduated with an engineering degree four years later. These fresh graduates were then assigned to various positions in the army, navy and air force as Second Lieutenants (or equivalent).

As time went by, the new recruits began to climb the military ladder from being promoted from Captains to Majors. This is when the hard truth started to sink in, according to Major (Rtd) Warren Lau’s account.

Some of us served as long as 10 years as Majors. In these 10 years, while ‘marking time’ as Majors, we watched as our Malay counterparts were promoted to Lieutenant Colonels, one by one with no exceptions.

We watched as some of our more senior non-Malay officers were by-passed for promotion by Malay officers junior to them.

Lo and behold, “the worst nightmare came to pass” when Major (Rtd) Warren Lau and his non-Malay colleagues watched “Malay officers who were our juniors (and who once called us ‘sir’) not only caught up with us but also got promoted to Lieutenant Colonels (from which point it was our turn to call them ‘sir’)”.

None of these Malay officers even had an engineering diploma (some went to technical college but failed and were kicked out of the college, let alone having a degree).

Capt Ismail used to be an adjutant and arranged things for me when I visited his base in Terendak Camp, Melaka. A few years later, he became Major Ismail, then Lt-Col Ismail and even became my immediate boss.

2Lt Rahman and I used to serve in Taiping together when I was a Captain. By the time I left as Major, he had become Lt-Col Rahman. The list goes on.

Doubters can brush aside Major (Rtd) Warren Lau’s account as that of ‘a disillusioned’ or worse, ‘senile ex-army personnel’ but many old timer non-Malays in his shoes can surely attest to the sharpness of his memory.

Remember General (R) Tan Sri (Dr) Mohd Zahidi Zainuddin, former Chief of Defence Forces? He was actually a very nice guy but I do wonder whether he remembered there was a time when we were Majors together in MINDEF (Defence Ministry)”

“So, never listen to idiots (like Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, formerly defence minister) who want us to believe that non-Malays don’t join the Armed Forces because of ‘lack of patriotism’.

Painful truth

The shared post has generated 489 likes, 268 comments and 84 shares with many commenters agreeing with the sentiment that to portray non-Malays as unpatriotic is simply untrue and way off the mark.

It is an open secret or “common knowledge” that has been normalised. This was the view of many non-Malay commenters who lamented that avenues to careers in public service are essentially closed to them.

One obviously unimpressed observer termed this practice of placing glass ceilings on non-Malays as “kulitfication” (as opposed to qualification or mertocracy’).

It was lamented that both civil service and armed forces were multi-racial in the 1960s but the scenario has changed drastically.

One commenter highlighted an episode where a high-ranking non-Malay naval officer was (allegedly) asked to step down by former premier Tun Abdul Razak Hussein. Such practice of ignoring meritocracy has only resulted in a brain drain with neighbouring countries, namely Singapore, becoming the main benefactors.

Another commenter claimed to have been accepted into elite British commando unit SAS (Special Air Service) after being rejected by three branches (army, air forces and navy) of the Malaysian defence forces.

“Why can’t they be confident to compete on meritocracy?” queried one saddened citizen. It was argued this is why non-Malays join the private sector.

One commenter pointed to the recent brouhaha surrounding the promotion of a Chinese army officer to the rank of general (Datuk Johnny Lim Eng Seng) to highlight certain quarters’ unease that a non-Malay achieved such a rank.

It was noted with some considerable cynicism that this practice is filtering through to the corporate and private sectors where individuals are appointed as departmental heads and to the board of directors (BODs) because of their ethnicity.

This is the power of social media. It allows for dissenting views – for every rightist utterance, there are plenty of retorts.

Open discussions on deep institutional issues within the armed forces and civil service are essential and required; lest the deep-rooted malaise becomes a permanent fixture.

Some, as the above commenters claim, it already has. –  Focus Malaysia