Malaysian Army - History
On 16 June 1948, the British declared the state of emergency in Malaya against the Malayan Communist Party. This marked the beginning of a guerrilla war between the British Administration (BA) and the Malaysian Government against the ethnic Chinese-led MCP. It took 41 years for the Malaysian Government to bring them to the negotiation table on 2 December 1989, when the Malaysian Government and MCP signed a peace accord. The implementation of the Briggs Plan, the British grand strategy to combat the communist insurgency in Malaya, had effectively suppressed the insurgency in Malaya. The British experience in defeating the communist insurgency in Malaya, has always been cited as one of successful examples on how a government could win ‘a low intensity conflict’.
The history of the Malaysian Army began with an attempt to set up a defense force consisting of Malay recruits. This effort dates back to 1902. Many discussions by the Malay Rulers and the British Advisers were carried out to establish the team. In 1913, the late DYMM Yang Dipertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, Tunku Muhamad ibni Yam Tunku Antah, the late DYMM Sultan of Perak, Sultan Alang Iskandar Shah, the late Raja Di Hilir Perak, Raja Sir Chulan and the late Undang Rembau, Datuk Abdullah bin Haji Damad had expressed their wishes team set up the Malay Regiment. The intention Rulers became a reality when the Federal Council Conference on January 23, 1933, Bill was passed and Malay Regiment known as Act No. 11. The beginning was an "experimental company" of 25 young Malays whom the British accepted into service in the colonial army on a provisional basis in 1933, in response to long-standing agitation for a Malay unit by the Malay rulers. The experiment was pronounced a success within a short time, and the unit was officially designated the First Battalion, the Malay Regiment, on January 1, 1935. A second battalion was formed in December 1941, in time to fight alongside the British army in an unsuccessful attempt to hold back the Japanese invasion later in the month. After the Japanese scattered across Peninsular Malaysia; some elements joined the British-supported guerrilla units known as Force 136.
After the war the British authorities recalled surviving members of the Malay battalions and reactivated the Malay Regiment. The outbreak of communist insurgency in 1948 led to the steady growth of the regiment, which by the end of the Emergency in 1960 had eight battlions and had been renamed the Royal Malay Regiment. As the name of the formation implies, entry into the Malay Regiment during the colonial period was restricted to Malays; the continuance of the unit's ethnic identity in the post-independence period was guaranteed in the Constitution.
The Kor Armor DiRaja (Royal Armoured Corps) originates from the formation of the Federation Reconnaissance Squadron on 1 September 1952. It was later merged with the Federation Regiment to form the Federation Reconnaissance Corps, which eventually became the Kor Armor DiRaja (Royal Armoured Corps) on 8 December 1986.
The first multiethnic military units in the country were formed in 1953 when the threat posed by communist terrorists was at its height, and additional forces were needed. The new units comprised the Federation Regiment and the Federation Armored Car Regiment, renamed the Federation Reconnaissance Corps in 1960 and the Malaysian Reconnaissance Corps in 1963. Theoretically, the new units were to be composed of 50 percent Chinese, 25 percent Malays, and 25 percent Indians and Eurasians. In practice, however, few qualified Chinese responded, even when offered extra incentives to do so, and adherence to the planned ratios proved impossible.
After independence in 1957 the country continued to rely on Britain to provide external security, and British forces continued to be stationed in the nation. At the same time, the armed forces embarked on a long-term program to develop first the capacity to handle threats to public order and eventually to undertake inde- pendent self-defense as well. The army dominated the new nation's armed forces. The navy was only a fledgling force, and the air force was not set up until 1958. The new military establishment was closely patterned on the British model, and Britons continued to fill crucial positions in the defense structure until they were gradually replaced by Malaysians. Although a military college had been set up in 1954 to train officer recruits, many senior officers had attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst or the British Army Staff College at Camberley.
When Malaysia was formed in 1963, a new unit known as the Malaysian Rangers was added to the army, increasing the non-Malay element in the armed forces. The rangers were an out-growth of the Sarawak Rangers, expert jungle fighters created originally in 1862 by Sir James Brooke as an independent force to subdue tribal chieftains; these units were later incorporated into the Sarawak Constabulary. During the years of the Emergency, the British army used ethnic Iban volunteers from Sarawak as jungle trackers to help in locating communist strongholds in Peninsular Malaysia; these units were given the name Sarawak Rangers in honor of the earlier formation. When the Emergency ended, the units returned to Sarawak and were incorporated into the British army as colonial forces available for worldwide service. The Sarawak Rangers were released from British service into the Malaysian Army when Sarawak was incorporated into Malaysia in 1963; at the same time, they were re-named the Malaysian Rangers.
Using British help, the rangers began to expand into a multi-ethnic force. The first battalion comprised the Iban of the Sarawak Rangers; most of the second battalion was raised in Sabah, formed around a cadre of personnel from the Royal Malay Regiment and the Malaysian Reconnaissance Corps. Subsequent batalions were recruited on a Malaysia-wide basis. Within a few years, the first two battalions of the rangers lost their original territorial and ethnic connotations and assumed a more integrated multiethnic character. Except for a few specialized or technical units, the Malaysian Rangers although often commanded by officiers from the Royal Malay Regiment, remained the sole multiethnic formation of any significance in the armed forces as of the early 1980s.
During the 1969 riots, army units were called in to restore order in Kuala Lumpur when available police proved unable to do so. The army's forceful crowd-control techniques — of which the Chinese community bore the brunt — prompted many observers to question the utility of employing the army, which was trained for combat, in a law enforcement role. Thereafter, special police units were set up to provide for such contingencies, although the armed forces continued to be charged with supporting the police when necessary.
The Malaysian special forces regiment was organized in 1965 to conduct commando-style operations on land and sea and by air. It had a virtually independent tactical role in the army and acted as the chief of the Army Reserve Force. In the early 1980s the special forces consisted of a headquarters establishment in Kuala Lumpur and one parachute and one special forces battalion that were billeted in Sungai Udang, Malacca. The special forces ran its own training center.
When the Emergency ended in 1960, Malaysia was honored as an independent nation, helping to maintain world peace. This honor was given to the Nation as the sixteenth Nation to send its troops to serve under the banner of the United Nations (UN), tasked with maintaining the peace of the Republic of Congo (now Zaire) on the African continent, which was in turmoil giving birth to its own independence. Army Service with United Nations in the Congo ended with the return of the Second Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment home on 28 April 1963.
After completing and successfully performing service with the United Nations in Congo, the Army once again came forward against a major threat to the country, when Indonesia under President Sukarno launched a confrontation against Malaysia in 1963. The confrontation was Indonesia's protest against the formation of Malaysia. on 16 Sep 1963 which merged Sabah and Sarawak with the states in Peninsular Malaysia. This confrontation continued for 3 years and many incidents and battles took place between the Army and the forces of the Sukarno regime.
Malaysia joined the UNOSOM mission from 1993 to 1995. 870 military personnel from 19 RAMD (Mechanical) were stationed on duty in Mogadishu from 18 June 1993. The battalion was involved in a combat mission to rescue U.S. Ranger soldiers trapped at Bakara Market in Mogadishu on 3 and Oct. 4, 1993, in which 75 U.S. Rangers were rescued.
Malaysian Army's Aviation Corps was declared operational in early 1997. But after the economic turmoil that hit the East Asian region in 1997, Malaysia had to take drastic measures to stabilize its economy. In fact, in July 1998 the Minister of Defense announced that Malaysia would no longer engage in any peacekeeping missions at its own expense due to national austerity measures.
As of 2006, Malaysian troops were serving in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Liberia, Serbia and Montenegro, Sierra Leone, and Western Sahara.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
