KUCHING: Some 60 per cent of about 13,550 ex-servicemen in Sarawak are living under the poverty line, Sarawak Veterans Affairs Department director Lt-Col Monday Juhid said.
He added that they comprised those without a pension after leaving the service.
He said the department was intensifying its effort to register them but only managed to register 6,500 people.
“We are now trying to find the rest through the 18 branches of the state’s ex-servicemen association,” he told reporters after the handing over of welfare assistance to the veterans here by Third Infantry Brigade Commander Brig-Gen Hasagaya Abdullah.
He said the department also planned to set up mobile counters as part of the effort to reach out to veterans in the state.
Among the problems in reaching out to them was logistics in the interior areas, he said.
“There are also ex-servicemen who are not interested to register on grounds that this won’t give them any benefit,” he said.
Monday added that the department, which was set up in 2001, provided numerous services and socio-economic assistance to the ex-servicemen, including in terms of education for their children, help them start a business and so on. – Bernama
Wilfred Pilo, [email protected]
KUCHING: Some 60 per cent of about 13,550 ex-servicemen in Sarawak are living below the poverty line.
They comprised those without a pension after leaving the service, Malaysian Armed Forces Veteran
Affairs Department (JHEV) Sarawak branch director Lt Col Monday Juhid told reporters at its office at Jalan Satok yesterday.
Records show that out of a total of 13,560 army veterans in the state, JHEV had secured about 6,500 members throughout the years and is calling the remaining 7,060 over ex-army personnel to register.
The department is intensifying its effort to register them.
“We are trying to find the rest through the 18 branches of the state’s ex-servicemen association,” Monday told reporters after the handover of welfare assistance to the veterans by Third Infantry Brigade Commander Brig-Gen Hasagaya Abdullah.
Monday said a mobile counter programme would be launched in nine rural areas throughout the state to locate and register all army veterans.
This is part of the effort to reach out to veterans in the state.
“There are ex-servicemen not interested to register on grounds that it won’t give them any benefit,” he said.
“With JHEV’s efforts, especially in trying to get the government to legislate its economic principal for the betterment of army veterans, it is hoped that veterans do not view ex-army associations and departments as no longer relevant in today’s society.”
The department, set up in 2001, provides numerous services and socio-economic assistance to ex-servicemen including education for their children, business start-up help and so on.
“One of the problems encountered in locating the veterans is that most of them are residing in the deep rural and interior areas which are hard to reach. Accessibility to such areas is our main hurdle due to limited number of JHEV staff in the state.
“JHEV will bring our mobile counter as far to the interior as possible in our bid to find them. We will seek the help of various Malaysian ex-Army Association (PBTM) throughout the state and other government bodies.”
Monday said the department would seek the help of other army veterans and family members to find and convince veterans to register as members.
“This year, we target to register at least 1,000 army veterans. If we can’t get to the ex-personnel, we will encourage their children to ask their fathers to join. We are also gunning on the ‘fellow veterans helping fellow veterans to recruit’ method,” he continued.
Under the scheme, members could apply for aid for daily expenses, school-level education and admission to public higher learning institutes (IPTA) for their children, medical and health financial assistance and natural disaster fund.
JHEV would introduce members to various consultants who could help improve their finances.
Members should, in turn, disseminate such information to unregistered veterans to convince them to sign up.