Forming the Association of Bravery Awards Recipients.

The affairs of the recipients of the Malaysian and the British bravery awards had, largely, in the past, been left on their own. Only the recipients of Malaysia's highest bravery award - Seri Pahlawan Gagah Perkasa (SP), an equivalent of the Victoria Cross was given a monthly allowance of RM200.00. The Pingat Panglima Gagah Berani (PGB), an equivalent of the British's Military Cross (MC) was not given any. The promise of payment remained a promise for some 10 years. The Chiefs of the Army came and went and it looked like the promise had been forgotten. In 1998, 6 years after I had retired, I wrote to the Defence Minister, Dato' Seri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak (now the Prime Minister). I appealed to him to give the PGB holders the much-awaited-for allowance that had been promised to us. To my pleasant surprise, he answered my querry almost immediately with an assurance that he would table the motion to Parliament at the next coming sitting. A year later the PGB holders were given a monthly payment of RM300 while the SP holders were paid RM400 - an amount far beyond my expectation!!! And not only that; we were paid the backdated from 1976. I received a whopping RM65,000.00 which made me feel like an instant millionaire. In reality, that amount lasted only a few months. Where did it go to? I don't know. Then sometime in 2007, another recipient took the initiative and wrote to Dato Seri Najib for an increment to RM1000.00. Two years later, the caring government of Malaysia paid the recipients of SP and PGB RM2000.00 and RM1500.00 respectively. Again it was beyond our expectation. Not only that, the recipients of the British's George Cross, Military Cross and George Medal were also eligible for the monetary rewards. Thank you the government of Malaysia!!! The Government of Malaysia, the Armed Forces and the Army didn't forget us. We get invited to attend / witness the yearly Independence Day parades, Armed Forces and Army Day parades. So, really, we are quite busy! The recipients of bravery awards from the Army and the Police had met frequently at these occasions. We have had a number of informal discussions as well as formal meetings to find out the possibility of forming an Association of the SP & PGB. A Task Force was formed to look into the matter and to carry out the necessary works to register the Association with the Registrar of Society (ROS). I was made the interim Chairman of the Association. We had a final meeting on 9 April 2011 to finalise the many documents that are required to be submitted to ROS.

L to R: Kol Roslan PGB, Major (Rtd) Sameon PGB, Me (Interim Chairman), Major (Rtd) Hanafiah PGB (Interim Secretary), Sub-Inspector (Rtd)Mashkor PGB and Major Dato' (Rtd) Sallehuddin PGB.

The Ex-Service Association office at Jalan Bellamy which we had used on a number of occasions was unfortunately closed that day and we had to use the restaurant next to it.