This painful reality is not imagined. It is the result of shifting political priorities, changing societal attitudes, and a growing disconnect between those who bore the cost of conflict and those who now govern in comfort.
In Malaysia, this injustice is most clearly felt by armed forces veterans who retired before 2013.
We are not asking for sympathy. We are asking for fairness, dignity, and recognition through policy, not parades.
Proven Service Needs No Symbolism
Pre-2013 pensioners do not need to prove patriotism by marching in parades or standing under the sun when called. Our patriotism was proven long ago—through lost limbs, shattered bodies, broken health, and lives permanently altered in the service of the nation.
We did not serve for applause.
We did not serve for slogans.
We served because the country needed us.
Yet today, many of us are treated as if our sacrifice carries an expiry date.
Pension Inequality: The Core Injustice
All that veterans who left service before 2013 are asking for is the streamlining and equalization of pensions.
Not handouts.
Not backdated windfalls.
Just equal pension for equal service.
Instead, veterans now in their late 60s and 70s—men who survived Confrontation, the Emergency, and other internal security operations—find themselves categorized as B40, or worse, B4, as though decades of service count for nothing.
Even fallen soldiers and disabled (OKU) veterans are placed in the same category.
Is this the value of our service?
I especially pity our Other Rank (non-officer) veterans, whose suffering is deeper, quieter, and more invisible. Their hope persists—but it grows thinner by the day.
A Trail of Broken Commitments
Several uncomfortable questions must be asked:
1. Why did the Armed Forces Council (AFC) decide to exclude pre-2013 pensioners?
Was this ever morally justified?
2. Why did two Defense Ministers, on record in Parliament, state that the government would comply with a High Court ruling—only for the decision to be appealed later?
Who authorised this reversal?
Who benefits from punishing veterans?
3. Where is the government’s care for those who once cared for it with their lives?
4. Is this delay a political strategy—postpone justice, then reverse course near elections to harvest gratitude and votes?
These are not rhetorical questions. They demand answers.
Gratitude Cannot Be Selective
Yes, one Defence Minister—from Amanah—deserves recognition for granting a RM500 allowance to all PJM holders during a single term. That act showed what political will can achieve.
But symbolic allowances cannot replace systemic justice.
For decades, the nation has witnessed massive defense procurement failures, mismanagement, and scandals costing billions—projects delayed, incomplete, or invisible. Yet when it comes to correcting pension inequity for veterans, we are told there is no money.
This contradiction is impossible to ignore.
Forgotten Conflicts, Forgotten Men
Veterans of Confrontation, the Second Emergency, and earlier security operations have almost completely disappeared from public memory.
Some conflicts were quietly erased—intentionally or otherwise—leaving those who fought them to age in silence, carrying trauma that civilians neither understand nor wish to confront.
While veterans are praised as heroes in speeches, many are privately viewed as inconvenient reminders of a past best forgotten.
Betrayal Is Dangerous
History teaches us a hard lesson:
No group is more dangerous than soldiers who feel betrayed.
Men who fought for a just cause—whether conscripts or volunteers—share intense bonds forged in combat. When peace arrives and their service is discarded, pride curdles into bitterness, and loyalty erodes into alienation.
This is not a threat.
It is a warning drawn from history.
Ignoring veterans does not produce stability. It produces resentment.
A Way Forward: Dignity Without Begging
We must not lose hope.
To restore dignity to veterans, I propose:
Retired senior officers and generals engage directly with the Defence Minister.
The AFC passes a resolution to equalize pensions, without insisting on backdated payments.
The government acknowledges this injustice openly and corrects it as a matter of national honor.
This is the least a grateful nation can do.
We approach this matter with pride and self-worth, not as beggars—not yet.
Conclusion: Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied
This is not about politics.
This is not about revenge.
This is about honoring service with substance, not slogans.
Have we lost a battle? Perhaps.
Have we lost the war? Not yet.
But every day justice is delayed, the nation risks losing something far more valuable than money—its moral credibility.
