DEFEND THE NATION: Stephen (right) with Baram District Officer Joseph Belayong at the Baram Regatta grandstand.
MARUDI: Brigadier General Datuk Stephen Mundaw has called on Dayak youths to join the armed forces.
He said at present the Dayak community only made up around 5 to 7 per cent of the armed forces.
“We want the Dayak youths to join the armed forces so that this figure becomes 30 per cent,” he said on Friday when attending Baram Regatta events.
He added that more Dayak youths from Sibu, Kapit, Mukah and Kuching should sign up to defend the country.
Stephen, who was recently awarded the Panglima Gemilang Bintang Kenyalang (PGBK), which carries the title ‘Datuk’, by Head of State Tun Datuk Patinggi Abang Muhammad Salahuddin Abang Barieng, is the first Iban general in the Malaysian armed forces.
He enlisted in 1977 and was posted to Port Dickson before being transferred to Australia for two years training.
Stephen was then posted to Rascom, Sibu where he served for a year and a half.
He then spent the next 34 years serving in Peninsular Malaysia.
On Nov 1 last year, Stephen was promoted to his current rank and assigned as commander of the Ninth Infantry Brigade based in Sibu.