Saturday, June 6, 2009

STATUS OF THE BOYS WING AT SG. BESI CAMP

I had on May 27th 2009 posted an article titled 'The Boys Wing of the Royal Military College a target for obliteration'. I am pleased to note that the article had generated a lot of discussions that were generally against the 'eviction' of the Boys Wing from its present location at Sg. Besi Camp. I knew this article will touch upon the sentiments of all those who were former students of the Boys Wing, as the move will obliterate the history of the institution.

I am equally pleased that the Executive Secretary of The Old Putra Association, Lt Kol Azuddin Fuad has come forward to explain the latest position with regards to the Boys Wing, and to quell all doubts and concern regarding the purported move of the Boys Wing out of Sg. Besi Camp.

According to Lt Kol Azuddin Fuad, there is already a plan that is in its final stages, to built a new Boys Wing just behind the existing site valued at approximately RM100 million. This would mean that the Boys Wing will remain in Sg. Besi Camp, and what is to become of the present Boys Wing is yet unknown.

The move to construct a new Boys Wing is apt, considering that the present structures are getting old and does not reflect an institution that is in keeping with modernity.

With the above explanation, I hope all those who were students of the Boys Wing, will now be relieved of their concern for their Alma Mater. For those who wants further information regarding the the Boys Wing may please contact Lt Kol Azuddin Fuad at 012-3993125


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Dato,

What about Cadet Wing ? arnt anybody fighting for the wing to be reinstate together with the boys wing. Its a shame if all our ex generals who graduated from FMC and RMC just keep quiet and let the officer cadet school being thrown out into the the jungle of ULU TIRAM.

All the current service chief ie PAT, PTD,PTL and PTU are either from BOYS WING and CADET WING,cant they say no to the civilian especially the Politician that we want both the wing to be housed together, FULL STOP.

komando said...

Yes we need to see what happens after this, cadets from years gone by should also voice out!

We need to see the Cadet wing come home to where it belongs!

The SSC and all the Regulars, thousands of them....

FMZam said...

Royal Military College (RMC or MTD)once housed the two Wings - The Boys' and The Cadets' for which it has stood a good stead as a renowned learning institution that has produced many leaders of our nation, both in miltary and civilian profession. RMC had always been the memory and soul of all of us who had been there whether as cadet officer or as secondary school student and to some as both.

To just "restore" only one of the Wings while "erasing" the other, is a meaningless restoration of RMC and in true sense, it is a mockery.

The Old Putera Association cannot just be proud of their effort in "salvaging" their sunken treasure in restoring The Boys' Wing while letting The Cadets' Wing to be salvaged by a saviour from the former cadets who have no association whatsoever to make the plight.

But then, the Cadets' Wing had long been "salvaged" or "cannibalised" by the brainchild of some "brainy" general who had his dream materialised into establishing a military academy and maybe another "brainy" general will continue it into a grand plan for a futuristic military university.

The way the development in this country is taking place, what is saved for us to remember is what a future leader will want us to forget.

Unknown said...

Dato'

NDU should be booted out from Sungai Besi as 'pendatang'

Unknown said...

We have already lost the war before it even starts!

It looks like everybody, including Dato' Arshad, Lt Kol Azuddin Fuad of OPA and most of you guys have been bought over by the short-sighted Mindef planners and army generals. See what RM100m carrots can do!

It is not the questions of RMC's old stuctures which have to be replaced with new buildings to keep up with modernity...
(The Malay College Kuala Kangsar and Victoria Institution facilities are much older!)
Its is now an easy way out and short sighted planning by some mad guys in Mindef because some top people say so. The generals and Mindef planners must have the balls to say "let RMC remains where it is but we uprade and modernise it. We will go to Serdang or Putra Jaya and build a totally new, state-of-the-art facilities for National Defence University, FULL STOP!!"

Are we giving RMC new and modern facilities or are we not proud to have new and modern buildings and facilities for NDU?

How could people stand so low and accept the idea of National Defence University squatting on present ATMA and RMC properties?
If I were the Vice Chancellor of NDU, I would rather wait for few years for a proper, modern and well-planned buildings and facilities at its proper home.

Please open the eyes and learn from other latest additions of universities in Sarawak, Kota Baru and Kuala Trengganu. All had to wait and it is worthwhile waiting if we aim to go for class and quality.


Assuming that everybody is blinded by the RM100m carrots and RMC is made to move to a new place ( also in Sungai Besi?) what would happen in 2059? The buildings would become old and some guys would again offer carrots for RMC to move, this time to Serdang, Kajang, Bangi or Putra Jaya ( No problems, still not too far from Sungai Besi!)

Human weakness is money and new things ( I hope not with wives)
and we have been bought over without any fight!

OPs, forget history, traditions and emotions......
let us celebrate with RM100m new Royal Military College and say
"thank you army generals and Mindef planners."

Good luck to RMC.

aofuad said...

Tuan Mohamad,
There is so much that one can do.
And there is so much that one cannot do.
I retired from sevice early and i consider myself as a 'coward' who dare not face the future battles and war.
If i were still in service i would have been in the group of 'generals and officers' that must have made the decisions in making such a decision.
I would have been submissive in my opinions and would show true camaradarie by agreeing to what my superiors says.
When i was the Commanding Officer of ATMA then, i did say that ATMA was an 'illegitimate conception' meaning that there should not have been an ATMA but only an upgrading of RMC to RMA.
Perhaps that was one of the reasons my tenure there was short listed and i was given another prestigious appointments training Field officers including international officers, the higher state of warfare.
And it was here that i decided to call it a day, maybe because i then found out that in order to be a DS, there, i have to 'play act' the art of warfare. It is too sensitive to discuss here and i might be ISAed..
Well the students there did 'play act' for a year and i found out that it will be tough for me to do it more than a year!!!!
This is only my opinion and i do not speak on behalf of the other 28 Lt Cols there...
There are many other reasons why i left too.
So 30 years in grenn sometimes can be boring.
The OPA can never be 'bought' and the battle is yet to start.
Only the paperworks are in the final stages, and it has already encroach to more than RM6 million or so from the allocations, because all those paperworks by the Consultants needs money.
Let us wait and see when actuallty the grond work will begins once the tender are open and the job contracted out to the relevant contractors. In this case the OPA has put up a strong stance that the contractor should be an old boy of the college, just like how TKC did theirs, getting the contractors and others from the husbands of the old girls...
This can be wishfull thinking, knowing very well that political know how can overule professional know all!!!

to accuse the 'short sighted Mindef planners and Generals' is not fair because now most of them has many many academic credentials to their name.
Last time, they only 'pass sekolah cina' or 'psc'...

I still have faith that the present batch of Generals and Admirals will rise to the occasion and will show their true colours.
I do know most of them personally and since most of them are my juniors anything bad that they do, i too have to be blamed for not 'ragging 'them enough when i had the chance as a senior...

Azudin O Fuad,
411673
Intake SSC 25, RMC Sg Besi

Unknown said...

OP Azudin,

Just to clear your curiousity, we have met many times during some OPA gatherings though I might have been appeared as an "old folk" because I started my FMC days in Port Dickson, well before you started your Boys Wing life in Sungai Besi.

Thank you for sharing your "not so sweet" military career and I have also learnt a lot about you from certain serving and retired army generals. It was very unfortunate that you decided to throw your towels early due to reasons known to you and many of your close military friends and your former seniors. We need not discuss about your "misadventures" in the army because some of your former bosses may not like it.

Please do not get me wrong when I regarded the NDU "squatting" in the existig RMC and ATMA facilities as ad-hoc and short sighted. I respect the generals and admirals in Mindef and their excellent academic qualifications are fine and I hope they earn my respect.

I question the rationale of NDU taking over existing RMC and ATMA facilities instead of going to a nice, modern and proper campus somewhere in Kelang Valley. I am informed that when facilities for ATMA were costructed they were meant to be temporary in view of ATMA going to a new home!

Would any decent human being accept a temporary ATMA to be permanent home of NDU?

We do not support the Mindef and the military leaderships to accept second class NDU buildings and facilities ( which RMC and ATMA structures are) but the NDU must be better than all the existing universities in the country!

Can I suggest you work out with some OPs to propose a 2000 acres land in Serdang or Putra Jaya for the NDU campus? If you cannot, I can do it, including seeing the PM and Minister of Defence to seek their blessings.

aofuad said...

OP Mohamad,
I think you know me better than to underestimate you.
I think you do know that i was being sarcastic in my praises....in my last postings.... sorry for my mischievious manner.
Anyway, i too was told that ATMA, was only there at RMC as a temporary measures and that their accomodation blocks will be made as quarters when they move out!!!!
That was made known to me when i was posted there on my return from Lancaster.
I was also told that ATMA will move to a better place and be independent of overything.
It is a place where future Chiefs will be born and bred...
That was what i was told and it is similar to what you have said.

Anyway, just now i had a chit chat with a former Commandant of ATMA, before the last Air Force Commandant who became the first VC who nearly put on 4 stars..
Well, NDU was conceptualised and realised in a matter of just a few years, wheras the normal planning time to make a University is at least 10-15 years.
Well lo and behold NDU was an Instant University,and it will be entered in the World Record as the fastest University in the World!!!!
Well this Air Force General really did a magical work and got everything done including getting himself in the Malaysian Armed Forces History!!!

Mind you, the Present PM said that this will be my 'Boutique University"..
And i was also told that the PM, has said that he will find a suitable place for the permanent site of the NDU.
I think he too realises that Sg Besi is not a conducive and suitable site for a University.
Even placing ATMA in a military complex was not a good idea...
I was told that areas in Putrajaya were recceed and so was areas in Salak Tinngi and Sepang and even near Enstek near Nilai..
There were also offers from Perak, especially in Lumut.
We know about Johor, but that is water under the bridge because it is overtaken by event now, since Iskandar Johor came about.
Maybe we should meet up to synergise?
Maybe Pak Chat can join in also on behalf of the Cadets' RMC.
I should be quite free after the OPA Dinner on the 20th June.
If you are attending i will seek you out..that's what infantriers do...seek and destroy..he..he..

Please do what you can through your connections with the PM and Def Minister.
Rest assured that the OPA under the present President is not sitting still and keeping quiet.
And you can be assured that i am one of the "agent provocateur".

Unknown said...

Dato' Arshad and OP Azudin,

My humble apology to Dato' Arshad and I seek your kind permission to use this blogg to respond to OP Azudin's remarks. I am sure you, as an OP, won't mind and I promise not to turn mind NO EVIL to be "OP blogg".

OP Azudin, I have to believe the former Commandant of ATMA for all those informations to reinforce earlier informations which I received from former military chiefs, chief of staffs and former RMC and ATMA commandants.

We must congratulate and respect Dato' Sri Najib and the Air Force Genaral ( he is an OP too!) for mooting the idea, planning and making NDU to happen in double quick time. The whole country and the Mindef community know that the existing NDU campus is TEMPORARY.

Do you realise that many army camps which were temporary
"operational buildings" have become permanently temporary army camps? This is what I call "ad-hoc and short-sighted" planning and we forbid NDU to suffer the same fate.

OP Azudin, I have never missed OPA annual dinners but unfortunately I will be away overseas on an urgent business trip on 20 June this year, as such we may not be able to compare notes after the dinner!

We all will continue to fight to make sure NDU gets its permanent home and it must be second to none.

The Braveheart said...

Young leaders have no value for memories and don't value history...

even sebatang karah (once the pre-OCTU) will be demolished..