Malaysia military
Race dominance - an obstacle
With billions of new high-tech weapons, Malaysia now needs more non-Malays to operate submarines, missiles and radar; one-race domination is self-defeating. By Seah Chiang Nee
Sept 30, 2002

After 30 years of an armed forces dominated by one race - like the police and civil service - Malaysia now wants to open the institution up to more non-Malays.

Just as it announced it was spending billion of dollars on hardware, much of it high-tech, military chiefs are faced with a dilemma left behind by history.

This realisation that long affirmative action or special privileges for Malays is no more a plus even for Malays comes in the final year of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's leadership. Ironically, he was one of its major architects.

For a generation, four out of five civil service jobs have gone to Malays, which helped to achieve the objective of closing their economic gap with other races.

But in a sharply competitive world, the price Malaysia is paying is substantial. To develop into developed world status, this nation of 23 million needs a first class, efficient civil service.

Keeping out the non-Malays is self-deprivation.

There are just not enough top Malay administrators in the bureaucracy because many of the better-educated professionals are creamed off by the private sector, especially the MNCs which pay higher salaries.

The military suffers more in the 21st century as Malaysia enters the world of high tech weapons and modern warfare.

It is being transformed from an old territorial army strong in jungle fighting to a full-fledged modern armed forces that, from general to private, have to work with high tech hardware and modern techniques.

It is not enough to have a trained hierarchy trained for it; the education level of the operating uniformed men must be of a minimum standard, especially in Science and Mathematics.

Besides, military manuals are in English and privates must know enough of the language to understand them.

Frequently Premier Mahathir has fought fault with the Malays neglect of these three subjects, with their children's academic achievements falling far behind the Chinese.

This is making it imperative for more Chinese and others with the technical abilities to join.

There is a political reason, too. Unlike in other jobs, it is self-defeating to have the whole multi-ethnic nation defended by only one race.

Defence Minister Najib Abdul Razak wants ethnic leaders to help with the recruitment of non-Malays into the military.

He told these non-Malay leaders to explain to their people the need to balance the number of non-Malay and Malay Malaysians.

Armed forces chief, General Mohamed Zahidi Zainuddin, also said he wanted to see more non-Malays in the military, saying the nation's defence was a matter for all Malaysians.

He promised that promotion would be transparent for the non-Malays and they would not be marginalised. There are not enough non-Malay generals, he added.

Of the 115,000 officers in the Armed Forces, non-Malays make up "less than 10 percent", according to the general.

All these talk has sparked off a public debate, including angry retorts from non-Malays about how they were deprived in the past.

Some officers have also defended the one-race domination as an outcome of history, rather than a deliberate policy.

The army chief, Gen. Tan Sri Mohamed Hashim Hussein, for example, attributed it to the Emergency, the war against the China-backed and predominantly Chinese Malayan Communist Party - and the exploits of a Lieutenant Adnan Saidi.

That he was conferred a hato'ship posthumously as a heroic Malay warrier had excouraged many Malays to join, said the general.

Writing in his SangKanchil website, political commentator MGG Pillai says Gen Hashim describes Lieut. Adnan, conferred a dato'ship posthumously, as a Malay warrior, whose exploits have encouraged Malays to join the armed forces.

The army chief hade made no mention of the need for non-Malays to join, observed political commentator MGG Pillai.

"He was only interested in the Malays. The non-Malays have fought as gallantly but there is a conscious attempt to erase their role as there is to preserve the Malay, even if it has to be manufactured," Pillai said.

"Conflicting comments ensure nothing would change, the non-Malay understandably suspicious of any attempt to bring him into the armed forces.

"No one is keen to join a service, unless he cannot help it, in which he knows he is an object of fun or, at worst, an inconvenience or hindrance, there for the multiracial numbers and no more.

"This is not only in the armed forces. It is in every branch of the institutions of state.

"In 1972, less than a dozen non-Malays were recruited as police officers. All have retired or about to, their promotions stunted not because they are incompetent but because they are non-Malay.

"Examples are found in every branch of Malaysia's institutions of state.
"The government's fear now of what this means is real. But the roots of it go back to the deliberate Malayisation of the civil service and the uniformed services after the 1969 racial riots.

A quota system for non-Malays ensured only their token presence in all institutions of state.

"Twenty per cent of the civil service, for instance, ought to have been non-Malay; but less than ten per cent now are. It was a political decision taken after the 1969 racial riots to ensure Malay dominance in Malaysia.

"You either have a political or a professional army. You cannot have a professional army if it is confined to one race."
Sept 30, 2002