SIBU: The new commander of Ninth Infantry Brigade (9Bgd) Brigadier-General Stephen Mundaw is the pride of the Ibans as he is the first from the community to hold the position in the Malaysian Armed Forces.
WITH FULL CONFIDENCE: Zulkifeli (left) pins the badge on Stephen with assistance from Stephen’s wife Jacqueline (right). Looking on from behind is Awie. — Photo by Conny Banji
He received his promotion badge, which marked his elevation from colonel to brigadier-general, from Malaysian Armed Forces Chief General Datuk Zulkifeli Mohd Zin during a handing-over of duty ceremony held at the Third Battalion Royal Ranger Regiment (3RRD) camp at Mile 14, Oya Road here, yesterday.
He takes over the command from Brigadier General Zulkapri Rahamat.
The camp was the first station where Stephen was transferred to after his commissioning as second lieutenant on June 6, 1979 upon graduating from Officer’s Cadet School, Portsea, Australia.
Speaking at a press conference after the ceremony, Zulkifeli said he was confident that Stephen would be able to carry out his duties well.
“I have full trust in him. He deserves the promotion because he is qualified, experienced, knowledgeable… he has all the criterias,” he said.
Zulkifeli said he had known Stephen since he was his student in his (Stephen’s) younger days as a military officer trainee.
Stephen, who hails from Sungai Melaban in Pakit Sri Aman, was born on May 31, 1958 in Kuching.
Before this appointment, he was the first director of the Combined-Joint Exercises at the newly formed Malaysian Joint Force Headquarters, responsible for all combined-joint exercises with Five Power Defence Arrangement (FPDA) nations, United States Pacific Command and other South East Asian countries.
He is married to Jacqueline Peris and they have two children, Faustino, 23, and Elgernon, 20.
He was the commanding officer of Ninth Battalion RRD in Taiping, Perak from June 1, 1997 to Feb 7, 1999 and Oct 30, 1999 to February 2001. It was his battalion that was deployed as part of the cordon of the infamous Al-Maunah arm heist in Sauk, Perak.
He completed his early primary education at St Lawrence’s in Sabu, Sri Aman, lower secondary education at St Columbus’ in Miri and higher secondary at SMK Simanggang in 1977.
He joined officer cadet training at Sebatang Karah in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan on Jan 7, 1978.
After three months of basic training there, he was then selected to complete his training in Australia before graduating as second lieutenant and was posted to Sixth Battalion RRD which was then based at Oya Camp in Sibu as a platoon commander.