WITH army veterans holding march to air their grievances, politicians have started their old games of pointing fingers to their adversaries.
This time around, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak accused the previous Pakatan Harapan Government of short-changing the veterans.
“Pakatan fellows are real opportunists when it comes to taking advantage of a tough situation. My question is, why didn’t they raise pensions for veterans during their administration?
“And why didn’t they protect veterans’ welfare back then? Just to remind everyone, it was them to abolished the Bantuan Bakti Negara scheme for our veterans on the excuse that the country was in dire financial situation,” he said in a Facebook post.
Yesterday, about 500 army veterans staged a peaceful assembly at the National Monument in the morning.
The group said that they had no choice but to hold a rally as they failed to get their plight addressed especially when it came to pensions, after eight years of trying to use proper channels.
Among the reforms they were demanding was on their pensions scheme. Under the current policy, army personnel must serve a minimum of 21 years to be eligible for monthly pensions.
“We have about 330,000 veterans who had their rights deprived, with about 135,000 not eligible for pension under the current scheme,” Utusan Malaysia reported them as saying.
Earlier today, Setiwangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Mat blamed constant political interference in the Veterans’ Affairs Board (PERHEBAT) and Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) for the problem.
Under the Bantuan Bakti Negara scheme, veterans who are ineligible for pensions used to receive an allowance of RM1,200 annually.
However, the scheme was abolished in February 2019 despite pleas from veterans’ group.
Training his guns against Pakatan, Najib said that during the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration, LTAT enjoyed good dividends unlike when Pakatan took over.
“From 2015 to 2017, LTAT’s dividend hovered around 8%. However, LTAT only received 2.5% dividends in 2018, 3.5% in 2019 and 4.1% in 2020,” he mentioned.
Najib remarked: “Anyway, I hope the current administration would address our veterans’ plight as what we did before the last general election.” – June 7, 2020
