Association hopes those entitled will not be left out

0

KUCHING: Ex-Police Field Force (PFF) Association Sarawak hopes that none of its members or non-members will be missed out in the bestowment of Pingat Jasa Pahlawan Negara (PJPN) gallantry award by the government.

The association’s honorary secretary Leong Thian Cheng said they will try their best to ensure all former PFF officers and personnel, who were entitled, be given the award accordingly.

However, he said, to enable the association to help them apply for the award they should register with the body now since membership fee was free.

“We estimate there are about 2,000 former PFF personnel throughout the whole state with many yet to become members. Our advice to them is to register with the association now or else we may not be able to help them apply for PJPN award.

“It’s not that we don’t want to help non-members but for any organisations it is natural that priority will always be given to their own existing members,” he said.

He said since the announcement of the PJPN award by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar many of their ex-colleagues had contacted them, including those from as far as Kapit, Limbang and Lawas.

“Many of them have given us a call to find out more about the award and we believe there were still many still unaware of the award and because of that we hope those who know will spread the word around.

“We do not want any of those eligible to be left out because apparently many of them are staying in the interior parts of the state where communication is still a major problem,” he said.

He said for further information on the subject, ex-PFF personnel or their dependents can contact him on 012-8096543, their president Datuk Aba Huk on 013-8682238), Santokh Singh (019-8891465), Sanchez Masleh (019-8217781) or Madehi Kassim on 012-8475525 by end of this month.

The award, which has been approved by the Cabinet and endorsed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, will be awarded in stages starting this year as recognition to police and army personnel, civilian officers and civilian persons who assisted the police during emergencies.

Last week Aba said the medal was actually what they have been waiting for and it was their hope that all ex-PFF personnel entitled receive the medals.

He said the problem, was there was no proper record on them as they were scattered all over the state and it would be difficult to reach them, especially non-members.

So to avoid being missed out, they should come forward and report themselves to the association as soon as possible.

“Apart from ex-personnel, we are also calling the dependents (father, mother, wife or children) of those who have already passed away because one thing good about this

medal is that a posthumous award will be bestowed on the deceased for as long as they were entitled.”

“So what their dependants should do now is register the deceased’s names with us and we will check for their entitlement based on the list provided by Bukit Aman Police Headquarters,” he told The Borneo Post here recently.