14th February 2018
MEDIA CONFERENCE PERSATUAN PATRIOT KEBANGSAAN (PATRIOT)
PERSATUAN PATRIOT KEBANGSAAN (PATRIOT)
MEDIA CONFERENCE HELD ON 14 FEBRUARY 2018, 1030 HR, AT NO 27, 1st FLOOR, JALAN USJ 9/5P, 47610 SUBANG JAYA.
MEDIA STATEMENT
Welcome and thank you for coming to our media conference. The purpose of this conference is to announce our projects that will be implemented in the immediate and very near future. We would also like to express our concern pertaining to what is happening in our society and nation.
RAKAN PATRIOT
Our Constitution allows for a class of associate membership called the Rakan Patriot. It is opened to any Malaysian citizen aged 18 and above, who are civilians and did not have the opportunity to be a member of the Malaysian Armed Forces or the Royal Malaysian Police. But most importantly, share the spirit of patriotism like us in Patriots, and share our vision – Malaysia: A harmonious, prosperous and progressive nation. We embrace all our Rakan Patriot members as fellow brethren Patriots. We will be organizing our Rakan Patriot members into the various state chapters, in which decentralized activities will be carried out. Activities will be centred in promoting inter-racial unity, understanding, trust, mutual respect, and towards rebuilding a new society and nation where all of us can proudly called, my home. We will leave it to the ingenuity of each chapter to come out with the own activities. It can be regular community meetings, social gatherings, fun games, sports carnival, talks and forums, gotong-royong, visit and help to those in need; etc. Patriot at the central level will provide support to the various chapters whenever necessary. We will also get the help and tap into the expertise of our collaborators like G25 and other NGOs to make our Rakan Patriot project successful. Ultimately, we aspire to see that our Rakan Patriot becomes a national movement in about two years from now. The launch of Rakan Patriot project is effective today, 14 Feb 18.
PATRIOT YOUTH LEADERSHIP & PATRIOTISM WORKSHOP
In this modern society multimedia plays a dominant role in shaping and influencing our mind. Information, whether factual, half-truth, false information, is disseminated in split seconds and the effect may be positive, negative or neutral. Parental guidance and school's education system have limitations in wholistic guidance. The emphasis is often on examination results. The second decade of a person's life is vulnerable, as it is also important for shaping the thinking into a positive and healthy direction for one's future contribution towards nation building. There are drawbacks from the current overwhelming influence towards the youths by electronic and social media. These have tendencies to influence one to be more materialistic, individualistic, and less compassionate for societal needs. Furthermore, the state of our nation’s political environment is much to be desired, tearing the little remaining of the fragile ethnic fabric of national unity. Left unchecked, this situation sounds unpromising to our nation’s future. If today's youths are to be future leaders, as it is often said, then there is a need to fill up the gaps to instill among them positive values such as patriotism, unity, respect, integrity, trustworthy, and leadership.
Patriot consists of veterans and retired police officers that have contributed significantly to our nation’s peace today. Since leaving service numerous among us have achieved great success in civilian life. The dual experience, in uniform and civilian, has made us a special and unique entity. Collectively we have a wealth of experience that we can share to help build our nation, through our Patriot Youth Leadership & Patriotism Workshop.
AIM
The Patriot Youth Leadership & Patriotism Workshop has a primary and secondary aim. The primary aim is help inculcate a sense of patriotism, national unity, and leadership among the youths. The secondary aim is to help encourage our youths to enlist in the security forces.
OBJECTIVES
The workshop has the following objectives.
1. Motivate the youths by narrating heroic stories and true experiences of our veterans and ex-police officers.
2. Explaining the principles of leadership, the significance of teamwork, unity, and comradeship to achieve a common goal.
3. Applying the principles in Objective 2 to group activity in a field obstacle (to be conducted in an obstacle course).
4. Interactive discussion to emphasise principles of leadership, patriotism, positive values, and national unity.
We hope to get three ministries involved in this project – Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Youth and Sports, and Ministry of Education. We will be approaching the ministries soon. Our earlier intention was to launch this project during the school holidays in March. But as the general election is drawing near, and the mood of the public may not sync with this idea at the moment, we will postpone the launch of this project to around May or June 2018.
TOL LAND FOR AGRICULTURE
The global economic outlook for 2018 and the years to come are grim. Global interest rate is on the rise. The decades of money creation through quantitative easing led by USA is now seeing the reverse, ie, quantitative tightening. Locally, even though our economic growth rate is forecasted above 5% this year, the people are feeling the squeeze financially, particularly the lower income group. Food price will be among the highest contributor to the CPI (consumer price index), and therefore resulting in higher inflation rate.
The Patriot TOL land for agriculture project is to try to acquire TOL land from the various local government to be used for planting self-subsisting crops. We will organize our veterans and retired police members to spare their free time to work on the acquired land.
This project has two main objectives:
1. To help our veterans and retired police personnel in self-subsistence in terms of food as much as possible.
2. To use agriculture and community participation as a catalyst for building national harmony.
To this end, we will approach the various states local authorities for help and work together with them for the betterment of the people and our country. The launch of this project will be a month after the next general election.
CAMPAIGN FOR BETTER WELFARE FOR VETERANS AND RETIRED POLICE
The campaign for the provision of better welfare for veterans and retired police personnel is an on going project. Patriot seeks the followings:
1. Pension of the older retirees to be at par with the new retirees. Needless to say this is because of the difference in pay scale over time.
2. For all Veterans, both officers and other ranks, on the terms of service. All to be given pension when they leave service. To take into account at whatever length of service, calculated on the number of years of service. This is because the majority of the veterans, and more so for the other ranks, are in need of help.
3. Public transport - a token of yearly RM 10 only special pass for veterans on all public rail and road transport system owned by the government and GLCs. This is because of the rising expenses in transportation.
4. A food stamp of RM 100 a month for the hardcore poor veterans. This is necessary due to the fast rising food price inflation.
5. A substantial discount based on household income to be given for electricity and water bills.
6. Every GLC to allocate at least 10% of it human resources to Veterans and ex Police below the age of 60.
7. Perhebat should not just conduct resettlement courses for veterans, but also be responsible to help veterans with low pension be secured with a job or business upon retirement.
Patriot wishes to see the government recognise the sacrifices of the veterans and the retired police in defending and maintaining the independence of this country. They have served with honour and sacrificed their personal freedom and family lives. Especially for the veterans, during service, were being subjected to the military law later known as Armed forces Act 1972. They were deprived of their freedom in accordance to the Article 10 of the federal Constitution. It is sad that when they became veterans, they were being equated the same status as the retired civil servants. This put the veterans at a disadvantage because of the unique terms of service of the armed forces, only less than 6% of the veterans can retire at the age of 60.
Patriot is seeking an appointment to meet with the Minister of Defence to discuss the above-mentioned issues. We will officially suggest to the honourable minister to have a veterans/retired police medical unit in every general hospital in each state. And to ask him to raise the matter in the cabinet meeting.
EXERCISING YOUR VOTE IS SHOWING PATRIOTISM
We Patriots would like to share an unpleasant secret. Reflecting the past, when we were in active duties in the security forces, we did not bother to vote. Neither were we conscious of politics and political happenings then. Almost all of us served our King and country with pride, integrity, and honour during the decades of the first and second emergencies. We fought with our nation’s enemies. Many among us, and our comrades were seriously injured, booby-trapped and lost a limb, or died in action. We were close to death, not once, but on many occasions. The peace that came to our country in 1989 was hard fought and did not come easy. Our focus then was to go to war, train for war, and be on perpetual operational standby for any quick deployment at all times. We did not have individual liberties like the civilians. Family lives were not a normal one for us. In short, we sacrificed, followed orders, and did our job as professional soldiers without complaint. We did not know all the fuss about politics. As commanders at various levels, we had officers and men of various ethnicities. We treated and cared for each other like brothers. Esprit-de-corps was high. There was absolutely no inter-racial animosity or disharmony.
Today, it pains to see our society and nation with so much of distrust for each other. Religious bigotry, individuals and politicians spewing hate speeches as if it is a daily vocation. There are groups and parties employing psyop and psywar to deceive, to confuse, and to divide the people for their selfish exploits. It has come to a stage of societal degradation and national destruction. As men who had been trained to protect our country from foreign attack, Patriot cannot allow our country to destroy from within. Peace and unity is our national treasure. We must not allow any politician to ruin it. This is our country and we must choose our national leaders carefully. Choose our national leaders to lead us from all threats, for peace, unity, and progress.
We Patriots will cherish our votes to choose our nations’ leaders. We were patriotic in not voting then. We are even more patriotic in exercising our votes now. We implore all Malaysians to vote. We do not believe in spoiling your vote or unidirosak.
For those of our brothers and sisters who are still in active service in the armed forces and police, we implore you to also exercise your vote without fear or favour. It is entirely up to you which individual or party you give your vote to. Vote with pride and honour.
For those officers in senior command, but are our juniors in service. We humbly remind you of your unquestionable integrity and honour. Do what is right for our beloved country. We salute you.
From what we see in the current world economic trend, the quantitative tightening, the reverse of the last two decades of frantic spending to expand the economy, together with our national debt, rising prices and high cost of living, climbing unemployment, etc, Malaysians in the years to come will face severe hardship. Continuation of bad governance as seen in the last five years will inevitably lead our country to ruins. If Malaysia has to rise again, we have to stay united. All Malaysians must be made to feel important, to feel wanted, to feel proud to be a Malaysian. Let us together build this dream and not to give up hope. Let us all show our patriotism by coming out to vote.
|
|
