About a month ago I sent the following e-mail individually to each of the 129 MSP's (Members of Scottish Parliament) and have received many positive responses, all of which have been carefully recorded.
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Dear Ms Fabiani MSP
Subject: Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM)
I am sure you will be aware of the recent recommendation of the Honours and Decorations Committee that denies British Malaya and Borneo veterans the right to wear the PJM that has been graciously offered to them by the King and Government of Malaysia for their part in successfully protecting newly independent Malaysia from aggression.
Please accept this letter as an expression of my extreme disappointment at that recent decision reached by Her Majesty's advisors, who comprise the HD Committee, regarding the restricted acceptance of the PJM announced in the FCO Ministerial Statement on the 31st January 2006.
As an expatriate Scot, I am writing to you to ask if you will support us (British Malaya and Borneo veterans) in our struggle to have this shameful recommendation amended so that I, and others like me, may have formal permission to wear our PJM with pride. That is all we are seeking. The Queen has accepted the medal - we just want to be able to wear it.
To tell 35,000 loyal military ex-servicemen and women, civilians, that they may accept a medal, which they will not be permitted to wear, defies all logic. On one hand, we are told that two rules (double-medalling and events over 5 years ago) are waived to permit acceptance and then, paradoxically, are immediately resurrected as reasons for the medal not to be ‘formally’ worn. To make matters worse, the double-medalling objection is wrong not only because thousands of veterans eligible for the PJM have no British medal, but also because the 5 year rule is spurious when applied to the scope of the Malaysian medal which was offered to the British in 2005.
This decision denigrates the loyalty and service of the affected veterans. In addition, it demeans the sacrifice made by 519 of my comrades who gave their very lives, during the course of those conflicts. It also offers gratuitous insult to the Agong, Government and Peoples of Malaysia.
The restricted recommendation places Her Majesty the Queen in the invidious position of having told her British citizens that they must accept rights inferior to those which she has previously conferred upon her Australian and New Zealand citizens, their Commonwealth comrades, despite the British being the only ones to serve in all parts of Malaysia throughout the period.
Please bear in mind that those eligible for the PJM are not soldiers in uniform, we are all 60 – 70 year old civilians who will never wear HM 's uniform again, and we cannot understand why we have been denied this little bit of joy for what we did for Malaysia.
More than that, why have we been made to feel second-class citizens?
Thank you for being so kind as to read this submission.
John ‘Jock’ Fenton
(ex-Royal Corps of Signals & 17th Gurkha Division)
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............................................Today I received the following message....particularly heartening...
----- Original Message -----
From: Linda.Fabiani.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 3:27 PM
Subject: RE: request
Dear Mr. Fenton - I agree absolutely with what you're saying and support your cause. A fellow MSP has laid a motion of support - you may already have seen it, but in case not, copy below:
sincerely, Linda
S2M-4401 Nora Radcliffe (Gordon) (LD) : Malaysian Service Medal— That the Parliament notes that, while Her Majesty the Queen has been advised by the governments of Australia and New Zealand that the Pingat Jasa Malaysia, Malaysian Service Medal, should be accepted for wear by veterans in those Commonwealth countries, she has been advised by the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals, quoting the Imperial Honours System, that British citizens may accept the medal but do not have the right to wear it formally; considers that this is unjust, inappropriate and a slight to the Agong, the Government and peoples of Malaysia and to those British servicemen and women and civilians who have been awarded the medal, and asks the committee to reconsider its anomalous decision.
Supported by: Trish Godman, Christine Grahame, Donald Gorrie, Linda Fabiani
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...................'Jock'
Paroi...Rasah...Batu Signals Troop.
