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Letters to The Queen
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We think The Queen should understand that we are being coerced into breaking a fundamental principle - that to wear an unauthorised medal would cause Her Majesty a grave discourtesy. Yet we are encouraged by the Foreign Office to do precisely that because, the civil servants tell people both here and in Malaysia, such wear is not policed.

They do this rather than accept they made a flawed recommendation and should amend it. Thereby they bring the Honours System into disrepute. They also offend the Monarchy both here and in Malaysia.

But British veterans will not.

Based on years of discipline and loyalty to The Queen, British veterans police themselves and will not do anything knowingly to cause offence to Her.

Dave Woolmer has picked up on this and here is his letter to the Queen:

"Your Majesty,

As a fomer service man, I am in reciept of the Pingat Jasa Malaysia. I know that you are aware of this medal and that eligible ex service personnel were given permission to accept but not to wear it. As a member of the Royal Naval Piper's Society, there are a number of events both home and abroad where medals are worn.

I therefore am asking for your formal permission to allow me wear the PJM alongside my British medals. I thank you Ma'am for taking the time to read this letter.

YOUR LOYAL SUBJECT,

Dave Woolmer."

Now ... how about other PJMers dropping Her Majesty a Billy Doo asking Her for Her help (she has the power to influence this appalling decision) in eliminating this obvious injustice. Send us a copy or place it in this Topic.

Thank you.

The Fight4thePJM Team


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia
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Post Letters to the Queen....herewith 
Her Majesty The Queen
Buckingham Palace
London SW1A 1AA
England. UK

February 01 2007

Subject: Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM)

Madam,

With reference to your Majesty’s approval of the recommendation by the Honours and Decorations Committee, which affords British Malaya and Borneo veterans the right to accept the PJM graciously offered to them by the King and Government of Malaysia for their part in successfully protecting newly independent Malaysia from aggression.

There is widespread confusion regarding that recommendation by Her Majesty's advisors, over the restricted acceptance of the PJM announced in the FCO Ministerial Statement on the 31st January 2006.

Some civil servants publicly state that 'no law is broken if this medal is worn and wearing will not be policed'. Conversely, Para. 21 of the official NID 10-002 of January 6th unequivocally states, that for a civilian to wear this decoration while denied ‘formal permission to wear’ would constitute ‘a grave discourtesy to Her Majesty the Queen’.

Having neither intent nor desire to offer any such discourtesy, my purpose in writing is to respectfully ask if you will specify for me my rights in regard of this decoration. Months of lobbying the MOD, the F&CO, the HD Committee, and multiple letters to several Ministers of the Crown, have failed to elicit any satisfactory interpretation. To date I have managed to obtain only evasive responses, employing convoluted and circumlocutory language, that deny an answer to my very simple and direct question. Which is:

Do I, a recipient of the PJM, being a retired civilian, no longer a member of HM’s armed forces, have my Sovereign’s permission to wear this decoration…Yes or No?

I have the honour to be, Madam, Your Majesty’s humble and obedient subject,

John Gordon Fenton.

(Ex Royal Corps of Signals & 17th Gurkha Division, Malaya)


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...................'Jock'
Paroi...Rasah...Batu Signals Troop.
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Pinjat Jasa Malaysia Medal (PJM)

You’re Majesty,

I know that you are aware of the PJM Medal awarded by the King and people of Malaysia to all Commonwealth Forces that defended Malaysia from the day of its independence 31st August 1957 to the end of hostilities in 1966 and that British Veterans are the only Commonwealth Veterans not to have your permission to wear this Honourable Medal.

I am informed by the MoD and the FCO that it will be a grave discourtesy to You’re Majesty if I am to wear this Medal without your permission, the MoD/FCO also inform me that it will not be policed. So are they telling me to ignore protocol and be discourteous to your good self? This I could not do.

This August my Wife and I are travelling to Malaysia to take part in the 50th Anniversary Celebrations and I shall be required by protocol to wear my medals which gives me a problem. If I wear the PJM I am discourteous to you You’re Majesty, if I do not wear the PJM I am discourteous to the King and People of Malaysia. I cannot win dammed if I do and dammed if I don’t.

I along with all the other British Veterans seek your permission to wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal.

I thank you for your time and remain your obedient servant



Paul Alders

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This letter will be winging its way to the UK first thing tomorrow morning:


Her Majesty The Queen
Buckingham Palace
London
SW1A 1AA
United Kingdom 1 February 2007


Your Majesty,

I am writing to you as one who is entitled to receive, but not wear, the Pingat Jasa Malaysia.

I know that you are aware of the campaign presently being mounted by many veterans of the latter stages of the Malayan Emergency and the Confrontation period to have the decision of the Committee for the Grant of Honours and Decorations regarding this medal reviewed and amended to allow its unrestricted acceptance, thus allowing it to be worn with pride on all official occassions.

For almost a year now, those of us involved with the campaign have had confusing statement after confusing statement regarding the wearing of the Pingat Jasa Malaysia given to us. Indeed, various civil servants have been reported in the media, both here in Malaysia and in the United Kingdom, as saying that we are perfectly at liberty to wear the medal. This, however, is patently not the case. In letters from departments within Whitehall we have repeatedly been told that we may accept, but not wear the medal. Indeed, Defence Instruction and Notice 10-002 of January 2006 in Paragraph 21 specifically states "they [ex-Service personnel] are expected to conform to the general instructions published in the London Gazette and in particular not to add any order, decoration, medal or emblem to which they are not verifiably entitled or which has not been approved for acceptance and wear. The wearing of unauthorised awards is a grave discourtesy to Her Majesty The Queen”.

Ma’am, neither I, nor any other veteran entitled to this medal, wishes to be discourteous to Your Majesty. The Oath of Allegiance that we took on first joining our respective services remains as strong today as it was on the day we first took it. That is why we are engaged in this ongoing campaign.

This year marks the fiftieth year of Malaysia’s independence and there will be many ceremonies here to commemorate the anniversary. At those events, servicemen and women from several Commonwealth countries will be present. All on parade on those occasions will be wearing the medals presented to them for their service here. Is the British contingent to be the only one on parade not able to wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia? If so, that would indeed be a great shame.

At present, the Committee for the Grant of Honours and Decorations is carrying out a review of the situation regarding the Pingat Jasa Malaysia. It was hoped that a decision on that review would be made known by the end of last November. So far, nothing has been announced. I hope and trust, Ma’am, that you are able to grant the unrestricted acceptance of this award bestowed on those who served in Malaya/Malaysia during those difficult times, thus allowing us to parade alongside our Commonwealth comrades in arms proudly wearing the Pingat Jasa Malaysia.

I have the honour to be, Ma’am, Your Majesty’s humble and obedient subject,


Laurence M Bean
Ex Royal Air Force.

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this is my letter to the Queen seeking approval of the PJM


Your Majesty
Governments come and governments go but this present government is the worst that I have ever known for lies and deceit, I am one of the thirtyfive thousand ex-service men and women who are the proud holders of the Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal and we are told that we cannot wear this medal as formal permission has been withheld and that if we wear it, it will be considered a grave discourtesy to you ma’am, the present government tell us to go ahead and wear the medal because it will not be policed, who now are being discourteous.

I swore an oath some fortyseven years ago when I took the Queens shilling, my allegiance to my Queen now is still as strong today as it was then and no way would I ever contemplate being discourteous to my Queen or my country . I am very proud of the fact that I have served my Queen and country and equally proud to say that I am british.

If I go to Malaysia this year in the celebration of the country’s fifty year anniversary and I refuse to wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal then I shall be showing the King and Queen of Malaysia a grave discourtesy however if I do wear it then I shall be showing my own Queen a discourtesy, yet my commonwealth ex-comrade in arms from Australia and New Zealand do not have this problem because permission to wear their Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal has been granted .
Your majesty I would like to request your approval for the wearing of the honourable Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal along with my GSM medal



I still remain your loyal and obedient servant

Dennis Birchall

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There are some cracking letters there lads, I wonder if Her Majesty will get the option of selecting one of those out of thousands that are sent in, mmmmmmm..........


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HD Committee: Amateurs in a Professional World
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unable to download my letter to the queen but in the post today 020207 regards ROGER spencer

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Martin Ratia requests that this letter be posted in his name and I am more than happy to oblige....details of his address in Vietnam deleted
10 February 2007 Vietnam

Her Majesty The Queen
Buckingham Palace
London SW1A 1AA
England

Madam,

I served in the British Army Royal Signals alongside Australian, New Zealand and Ghurka troops in 28 Commonwealth Brigade, Malaya, 1962-1965; I am therefore eligible for the Pingat Jasa Malaysia award, so kindly offered by the Malaysian government to recognise those who served their country in its time of need.

I am proud to be eligible for the PJM but deeply offended and saddened by the Honours & Decorations Committee’s ruling that it’s a keepsake and can’t be worn – which means I can stand next to my former Commonwealth colleagues at remembrance services, but am not allowed to wear the same PJM award that they will proudly display on their chests courtesy of far more enlightened Australian and New Zealand honours systems.

That “keepsake” decision by the HD Committee is, in the minds of the thousands of eligible veterans and supporters of our fight to wear the award, nothing short of farcical; and to further reduce the situation into a mind-boggling quagmire of bureaucratic bungling, we now have a statement from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office that ‘wearing of medals is not a crime and is not policed’ – advice which is in direct conflict with that given to your goodself (that you approve acceptance of the PJM by British citizens ‘on condition that it is not worn’).

But it gets worse. Ministry of Defence directive MoD DIN 10-002, Jan 2006 states that if ex-Service personnel wear an unauthorised medal, it will be ‘a grave discourtesy to the Queen’.

So the HD Committee says we can’t wear the PJM; the FCO says we can; the MoD says we shouldn’t. Meanwhile, the Australians and New Zealanders wear it with the full support of their respective governments and your goodself.

It is widely accepted that the British Commonwealth campaigns in Malaya, Borneo and Indonesia were and still are the only major successes enjoyed against terrorism by the free world. Against that background, the PJM is surely worthy of more than the “trinket” status afforded it by the non-elected, petty-minded bureaucrats in the HD Committee.

I am but one of many thousands of loyal ex-servicepeople aggrieved by that ruling and, while I and fellow former servicemen and women would never knowingly cause offence to Your Majesty, we strongly urge that You instruct the appropriate authorities to review the HD Committee’s completely unrealistic “keepsake” decision with a view to reversing it and injecting some common sense and respect into a situation that is currently making HM Government a laughing stock around the world.

Hoping this meets with your kind consideration and approval.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Ratia
23722721, ex-208 Signal Squadron
28 Commonwealth Brigade
Terendak Camp
Malacca
Malaya
1962-65


_________________
...................'Jock'
Paroi...Rasah...Batu Signals Troop.
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'Jock' Fenton wrote:
Martin Ratia requests that this letter be posted in his name and I am more than happy to oblige....details of his address in Vietnam deleted


That is a brilliant letter. And he's taken the trouble to write it from Vietnam! Thanks, Martin.


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia
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My recent letter to HM

Her Majesty the Queen
Buckingham Palace
London SWIA 1AA
UNITED KINGDOM


5th February 2007


Your Majesty

The Malaysian Service Medal 'Pingat Jasa Malaysia' (PJM)

I had the honour to receive the Pingat Jasa Malaysia as a result of service in the British Army in Borneo. I possess dual British and Australian nationality.

I am dismayed to learn that the MOD sees it as a grave discourtesy to wear this medal. As an Australian citizen I will of course wear my PJM alongside my GSM when I march with Australian veterans on ANZAC day since I am led to believe I am not showing discourtesy to the Queen of Australia. I am also sure that the Governor General of Australia will be wearing his Pingat Jasa Malaysia on formal occasions.

I have arranged to have my Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal mounted alongside my General Service Medal. I feel that to do otherwise would be a discourtesy to the Agong and people of Malaysia who graciously bestowed this award on British and Australian veterans. I am not alone in this view which is shared by most veterans. Field Marshal Lord Bramall has stated publicly that he will wear his Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal. The PJM is the only award some British service personnel will ever receive.

In my view flawed advice was given by senior civil servants and the HD committee to your ministers on this matter. Senior civil servants refuse to provide copies of documentation that relate to the "no wear rule " for this medal and in many instances refuse to correspond with veterans. The Foreign Secretary also appears unwilling to enter into correspondence on this matter. To be fair to her we believe mail may not be seen by her since it is intercepted by civil servants.

Some veterans like me believe it is within your gift to make it known publicly that you do not believe it is discourteous for British veterans to wear the PJM alongside British medals. If you have a different view then we must agree to differ on this point.


I have the honour to be, Madam, Your Majesty's humble and sometimes obedient subject and servant.





Hamish Waters

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hamishw wrote:
My recent letter to HM


Hamish,

You have set out brilliantly the complex situation affecting dual nationality Malaya-Borneo veterans.

Should you visit the UK, will you be expected to go to the cost of having your medal bar rebuilt?

And then rebuilt again on your return to Oz?

And rebuilt on before your next visit to the UK for Remembrance Day parades?

Hmmm ...


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia
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