|
Malaysia's war veterans live below poverty line
Some 90 per cent of the 16,000 registered army veterans in Sarawak are living below the poverty line. The chairman of Army Veteran Organisation Kuching Division, Captain (Rtd) Johari Ibrahim said in July that low ranking soldiers were especially badly affected, and it was made worse by the fact that they normally retired from the force at 42.
“They are still productive at that age but when they fail to land another job for whatever reasons, including the unfavourable economic conditions. They have no other choice but to go back to their respective villages to toil the land,” he said.
He added that these veterans were not blaming the government but they did need assistance. “Even if they have to go into farming, they still need to knock on the government doors for assistance.” He said he hoped the government would help these veterans to improve their socio-economic status given that most of them received low pensions.
“We have a ‘Rambo' who is a trained shooter, and who once charged at the enemy to rescue his colleagues, and all he gets is RM300 in pension a month. He and others like him have to look for other sources of income to feed their young families,” he said.
He added that his worst fear was that these veterans would turn to the other ‘side' to look for extra income, and this was a possibility in these hard times.
|
