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MOD Staff who misleed the public should be exposed
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Post MOD Staff who misleed the public should be exposed 
See the article in THe Times:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article1350515.ece

Perhaps we should write to the Times correspondent Mathew Parris

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Post MoD Staff .............. should be exposed 
Oh that I had the writing skills of Mathew Parris! His incredibly intelligent and well informed quote that, when referring to Civil Servants, he says "There is a culture there that sees the public as a damn nuisance. The culture is endemic and needs to be stamped on very hard indeed."
This statement proves us to be right and reasonable in all the things that have been said on this sight, and in our various letters. There can be no doubt that our campaign is being treated as 'infra dig' Tony

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Post Civil Servants who mislead the Public 
Hamish, following your suggestion of contacting Mr Mathew Parris following his excellent article in yesterday's Times, I have taken up your suggestion, and penned the following :: (a bit lengthly, but it should get the point across !)

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Mr Mathew Parris 9th February 2007
c/o The Editor
The Times Newspaper

Dear Mr Parris

I am a great fan of your column articles in the Times newspaper, and have just read your excellent and well-informed opinion of civil servants entitled – ‘MoD staff who mislead the public should be exposed’. You say of these civil servants that, in your opinion, “There is a culture there that sees the public as a damn nuisance. The culture is endemic and needs to be stamped on very hard indeed.” How so very true.

I, and several thousand of my colleagues, cannot but totally agree with you. I don’t think for one moment you need more confirmation of what you have said, but allow me to bring to your attention a glaring example of such arrogance.

Briefly, in Mid-2004 the award of the Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM) Medal to Commonwealth personnel who served in Malaya-Borneo between 1957 and 1966 was announced by the Malaysians, for physically fighting hard to maintain their newly found Independence. It took us – approximately 35,000 of us - from mid-2004, until 31st January 2005, when to achieve a state where the Minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs, Mr Ian Pearson made a Written Ministerial Statement to the House of Commons, which deigned to allow us to accept the award. He went on to add that we were not to wear it !

Since the very beginning of these events, we have been fighting an extremely vigorous uphill and very frustrating battle to have this decision on wearing the medal rescinded. We have a well known website www.fight4thepjm.org, and our campaign is supported by Early Day Motions in the Commons with over 300 signatures, a Petition to The Queen, interviews on BBC Radio, and world-wide support from places as unexpected and as far away as Vietnam. As you can imagine this campaign, along with all our emails and letters, has placed these civil servants with their backs firmly against the wall. And they do not like it. They totally fail to realise that if we do not dare to stand firm and defend the freedom to question anything and everything, we are on the very slippery slope to becoming a pre-Darwinian species.

This brings me to the comment you made above regarding their culture. They reacted by publishing a gross misrepresentation of the truth on the Veterans website, open to the public, in which they said, amongst other things “……………that the MOD has refused to allow veterans to receive[sic] a campaign medal offered by the Malaysian Government for service between 1957 and 1967.” This is untrue. The government have said that we may accept the award but not wear it.

They then continued, with unrivalled arrogance to say “Seeing individuals proudly displaying a number of campaign medals has prompted some veterans to ponder about the overseas service they performed during their time in the Armed Forces, both as Regulars and National Servicemen. This has encouraged them to seek new campaign medals for past service.” We did NOT seek this award, it was offered to us by the King and grateful people of Malaysia.

The article prompted me to call to mind the last time I was addressed or referred to in a veiled manner such as this; it was as a rather errant schoolboy, when my housemaster expressed unfair displeasure at my activities during the previous term. I was not prepared to accept his words with total resignation then, and I am most certainly not prepared to accept it quietly from these people now. I will not humbly bow my head and shuffle off in shame.

I could, Sir, ramble on and on regarding this subject, as it is one issue about which my colleagues and I feel very strongly. I simply write to let you know how much we are in total agreement with what you have written.

Yours most sincerely

AJDavies

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Great letter Kentsboro. Lets hope he follows up on your letter.

Hamish

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Post Re: Civil Servants who mislead the Public 
Kentsboro wrote:
Hamish, following your suggestion of contacting Mr Mathew Parris following his excellent article in yesterday's Times, I have taken up your suggestion, and penned the following :: (a bit lengthly, but it should get the point across !)


Tony,

A great letter - it makes the point.

Barry


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia
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Good stuff Tony, more of the same please from others


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Beautifully scripted Tony. A "651" special. I couldn't improve on it but never the less I shall pen a letter to Mr Parish myself.

Regards,

John


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651 Signal Troop,
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Well done, Tony, an excellent letter.

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This is my response to the Times article. It was difficult to contain myself after hearing how those cretins in the MOD continue to mislead the country.
It is a disturbing story about the death of Lance Corporal Matty Hull and the culture of deceit by the MOD. This culture of deceit and lies is also very evident in the manner that the MOD have dealth with the issue of the PJM medal awarded to former British servicemen by the King of Malaysia for their service in Malaya and Borneo during the 50's and 60's.
Veterans were told that the Queen had given permission for the medal to be accepted but could not be formally worn. Efforts to have this decision changed has met with lies, misinformation and scurrilous efforts by senior public servants in the MOD to stifle debate. Where is the accountability for those highly paid anti -public servants. Letters to the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary go unanswered. Not only is it a sad reflection on the government's attitude towards veterans but also to those brave men and women currently serving.


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A classic case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, and don't they know it.

Yours Aye

Arthur

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MOD Staff who mislead the public should be exposed

..............and then paraded through Whitehall in the 'alltogether' taken to The Fountains of Trafalgar Square, bass broomed and then returned to their cages


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That's your trouble John, you are too caring and considerate. Ask yourself this question, when Dr David Kelly told the truth he was hounded and pilloried. He eventually committed suicide. What price honesty and decency now?

Yours Aye

Arthur

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Post Civil Servants who mislead the Public 
I have been digging into past articles in an attempt to sort one or two things out that I don't quite understand. I would appreciate any help or guidance.

My first query is as follows ::

In the infamous Written Ministerial Statement of 31st January 2006, the Veterans website states:

"Applying for the Medal

The Ministry of Defence does not have lists of veterans who served in Malaya/Borneo between August 1957 and August 1966, or indeed for any other overseas deployments, so people who wish to receive this medal will have to submit applications individually through an appropriate veterans' organisation. Individual applications should [b]not be sent to either the Ministry of Defence or the FCO."

However, in the "Instructions for the Completion of the Application for the Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal, Category 2, Verification of Service", it states Although the PJM is a foreign award from the Government of Malaysia, all applications for the PJM will need to undergo a verification process by the Ministry of Defence. This process can be greatly assisted by applicants supplying as much information about their service as possible including service numbers, dates served in the prescribed area, etc. This will allow applications to be finalised much quicker"

How can they veryfy these applications if they do not have a list of those who served ?

I may be making a mountain out of the proverbial here but maybe some wiser soul could advise me. Thanks.

Tony[/b]

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Tony

I believe they do not have a list of people who served in Malaysia during the time span, but they do hold the individuals record (subject to availability). The 'rubber stamping' is just that, if an association has sent through to the MoD a batch of PJM Applications then these have been 'checked' by themselves as being authentic and endorsed.

It is quite shameful that the UK MoD have no interest in the PJM as has been shown from recent letters to forum members. These people are, seemingly, accountable to no one except for themselves

Rolling Eyes


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Thanks John,

I suppose I should stop reading things into situations that I would dearly like to be fact !

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