Nothing can shatter our efforts in defending veterans - Hishammuddin

SHAH ALAM - The peaceful assembly of veterans on Agong's birthday on Monday will not shatter the Defence Ministry’s efforts to defend and care for the veterans, says Senior Minister (Defence) Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

He stressed that the ministry would look into the demands made on pension claims of the veterans.

"I believe the gathering will never negate our efforts to defend and look at the position of our veterans.

"Our national number of veterans is 300,000, so whatever considerations we are defending, these are definitely taking into a large number of account," he said at the pre-launch of Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA '23) at the Defence Ministry earlier today.

Hishammuddin also said the efforts to continue the advocacy agenda on veterans would continue as revealed recently.

"As I announced the two initiatives on the Malaysian Armed Forces’ 100th Anniversary, we are ready to go on with it.

"The two initiatives are payment of pension and an advisory panel to look at the application of ex-armed force who are not recognised as veterans.

"So, these things are always on our radar and when we're done, we will announce it," he told reporters.

This came after hundreds of military veterans gathered at Tugu Negara (National Monument) in Kuala Lumpur on Monday in hopes that their demand for the military pension system be reviewed.

Among the demands made to the government include pension adjustment and the matter of no beneficiary for members who have been discharged under disciplinary issues.

However, Hishammuddin said he had prioritised various agendas including access to education, healthcare and housing for the veterans.

For example, the Housing Blueprint 3.0 introduced on May 20 would enhance the housing agenda for the Malaysian Armed Forces personnel, veterans as well as their families and ensure their welfare and well-being continue to be protected.

Under the initiative, the ministry would also build 30 new units for selected armed forces veterans and upgrade another 70 existing units.

Hishammuddin had said the blueprint was developed based on three main objectives, namely construction, maintenance and ownership.

Military personnel, veterans and their families could live in comfortable homes, and there were four main programmes to be implemented under the Housing Blueprint 3.0.

The blueprint was first established in 2017 to introduce a holistic housing agenda for soldiers and veterans as well as for their families.

The efforts were later expanded under the second edition of the blueprint that was released in 2019.