Monday, November 15, 2010

So You Think This Will Work?

A result of the brouhaha about the "patriotisme issue concerning the military recruitment", the Ministry of Defence has been ordered by none other than the Prime Minister himself to work with non-Malay organisations and NGOs to boost Non-Malay participation in the military. And it should "not be continued to be a subject of polemic". Polemic? So you don't debate it and expect to resolve it just by working with the target groups eh? I say good luck for the efforts.

Shoot the messenger so that your popularity remains without identifying what is the problem and finding effective means to resolve the problem is not a good way of managing the matter and is more akin of sweeping the issue under the carpet. Many a good general has lost not only battles but wars when some of their men begin thinking " I did not enlist to get myself killed". So unless you get these recruits, Non-Malays or otherwise, to enlist out of their patriotism and free will, then you risk the prospect of "rats abandoning the ship" when "the shit hits the fan". It used to be easier for these Non-Malays to join the military even though their brethren loyalties lies elsewhere, as they decided to throw in their lot to defend what they believe is their nation. Identify what has changed since then so that the Military again becomes attractive to the Non-Malays. I am sure the 19 percent of the Non-Malays already in the military has found reason enough to enlist. Identify the reasons and expand on it to make it more attractive for other Non-Malays to enlist. Don't tell me that since the nation is at peace, let's make money?

In the meantime, I want to see the person who wants to make an example out of the Defence Minister be patriotic enough to pick up the gauntlet thrown to him to join the Territorial Army, or he is just a good example of a Polemic himself. Don't call another a rat if you yourself is a politikus.

2 comments:

Snuze said...

Notice how the lobbed the ball back to the Government's court instead of committing to promote joining the armed forces to their constituents or ethnic group?

Bah.

mumuchi said...

Very2 observant Snuze, and I just noticed in the Malay papers that supposedly part of the problems are quotas. What quotas are you talking about? Other than the RMR, you non-Malays are free to join any military unit you want.

But the point here is this. Why the selective reporting in the first place?