MEETING IN PROGRESS: Mahmood (seated centre) delivering his opening remarks when conducting the meeting.
KUCHING: The Ex-Armoured Corps Club (Kebal) is planning to spread its wings to Sarawak, its secretary Brig Gen (Rtd) Datuk Mahmood Ibrahim said yesterday.
He disclosed that they had been thinking of forming a state-level committee here but first they had to ensure there were enough members.
He, therefore, hoped that many Armoured Corps veterans attend the club’s inaugural get-together here on October 22 and at the same time register themselves as members.
So far, he said, only three former Armoured Corps officers from the state were registered as Kebal members although quite a number of Sarawakians had served in the corps.
“The small number from Sarawak becoming Kebal members could be due to the lack of publicity in the past and that is the reason why we will be coming here this time. We want to get all Armoured veterans here together so that they can form their own state-level committee.
“Therefore, we want to clear the misconception among our veterans that Kebal is a club exclusively for former officers and the senior ranks which is actually not right. Kebal, which was formed some 11 years ago, is for anyone who had been part of the Armour Corps family. This includes widows and next-of-kin of those who have passed away,” he explained.
Mahmood, who is also Kebal deputy president, said the club’s total membership stood at only about 70 last year but following a series of road shows this year they managed to register over 400 new members.
In his opening remark when chairing a meeting at 4th Royal Armoured Regiment (RAR) in Penrissen Camp here yesterday, he said that the formation of Kebal was not in any way to take over the role of the Veterans Affairs Department (JHEV).
“In fact our intention is to complement JHEV in tracking down all our former comrades and their next of kin. We believe many of our Armoured Corps veterans are not even aware of the privileges the government has for them.
“So here is where we feel Kebal can come in and become the bridge between our members and the department. Apart from that our other objective is to provide a venue for our veterans to get together and probably exchange ideas and opinions on how they can work out something that can benefit members and their families in the long run,” he said.
According to Mahmood, the club actually had several plans and setting up Kebal Dagang (investment arm for club members) was one of them.
“In fact we have many things in mind and one of them is to set up Kebal Dagang but it is still in the planning stage,” he added.