Obituary....The Passing Of An Icon - Colonel Mohamad Zain Daud

We were like the Salt and Pepper duo, one short the other tall. Although I tower over him he never ceased to remind me who the boss was. It was the early 1970s and communism was still a threat in the peninsula. Our battalion was based in Wardieburn Camp, Kuala Lumpur and was making constant forays into the “bush” hunting for a cunning yet elusive enemy. It was a trying time indeed.

Although Emergency was officially declared over on July 31, 1960, terrorists’ presence was still felt throughout the country. A spate of bombing incidents and the assassination of the Inspector General of Police tested the nation’s resolve to the limits. But it held on.

Troops were deployed to all the troubled spots to contain the terrorists and to defeat them on the ground of our own choosing. Colonel Mohamad Zain Daud was the quintessential Royal Malay Regiment officer - spit and polish.

He was already in command of a Malay battalion in Kuching when he was posted to the 2nd Battalion Ranger Regiment (2 Rangers) in January 1973. We heard of his temperament as the Commanding Officer of the 9th Battalion Royal Malay Regiment for I was in communication with its Adjutant, Captain Khairuddin. A person who brooked no nonsense and whose antics were sometimes theatrical, I was prepared for the worst. It manifested in the form of a diminutive man who was ill at ease with himself and his surroundings.

My first encounter with Zain was at Subang Airport when he flew in from Kuching on a MSA (Malaysia Singapore Airlines) flight. It was a disaster. The staff car broke down. Instead of a free ride home, we had to take a taxi to the camp. Zain was fidgety and was ill at ease. I tried to break the ice by saying something funny but he was not amused. We stopped at the Officers’ Mess for a drink but the waiter, not forewarned of our arrival, was absent.

That was the final straw. He told me to take him to his quarters, poste haste. Our brief introduction was not a cordial one and I got an earful the following morning The battalion had a string of misfortunes while stationed at Loke Kawi Camp in Sabah. Unnecessary deaths had occurred due to suicides, road accidents, drowning and one was shot while attempting to scale the barb wire fence of his outpost on Bangi Island, Sabah. Although 2 Rangers had been in Kuala Lumpur since December 1971, our operational
success was negligible.

Morale was rock-bottom. A good and capable leader was what the unit required. Zain provided the kind of leadership that a battalion like 2 Rangers needs in time of crisis. He insisted that there were no bad soldiers but bad officers. “When the second-class monkeys leave the third-class monkeys take over,” he enthused and took steps to rid the unit of “third-class monkeys”. Addressing the troops was his way of getting his message across to the men. He would order the Regimental Sergeant Major to gather the troops in the mess hall for a talk. So we would be in the hall prior to getting into the bush and when we were out.

Transparency, which we preach today, was already in practice in 2 Rangers in the 1970s. Zain was equally merciless in the bush. His method of searching the ground was being adopted by other battalions as it proved successful in flushing out the enemies. He would assign numbers to features like hilltops, trig points, valleys, cols, saddles, confluences of rivers etc. This made identification easier and faster rather than giving six-figure grid references, which was the norm.

His perseverance resulted in the battalion bagging its first kill during an operation in the jungles of Sungei Siput on April 23, 1974. Zain would push his officers to the brink. Being his Adjutant I was the one nearest him and would be the first in the line of fire. I would normally get the first salvo before it reached his intended target. He believed in proficiency and had insisted that we give our best regardless of the outcome. “Do it or don’t do at all,” he quipped. A keen sportsman, Zain represented his alma mater, Federation Military College, in hockey and later played for the army team.

His other love was golf and had been active on the links since a captain. Zain’s passion for the game knew no bounds. He died on Sunday, November 12, 2006 before he could tee-off at a golf course in Jakarta. Zain joined the army in 1958 and was commissioned into the Royal Malay Regiment. He served in various capacities but was best remembered for his stint as Commanding Officer 2 Rangers (1973 to 1975) and as Commandant of the now defunct Officer Cadet School Port Dickson (1980 to 1981). Upon retirement in 1983 he dabbled in business until recently.

However, little is known of his successes and failures in the commercial world, as he had remained tight-lipped. Colonel Mohamad Zaid bin Daud, 68 is survived by his wife and two children, a son and a daughter. He will be sorely missed by friends and foes alike and his absence at our annual reunion will be felt.

by Lt Col (Rtd)Fathol Zaman Bukhari in the Ipoh Echo