I felt that I needed to ramp the emotion in my letters to certain people who seem intent on ignoring/playing down my requests that they dosomething.
Here is the first, to Mr Touhig.
Dear Mr Touhig
Subject: Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM)

As you have seen fit not to respond to my earlier letter to you – I assume that you were too busy posing for the Press – I thought that another letter was due.

I noticed in the media last week that you lost no opportunity in getting in the essential sound bite when presenting a WWII veteran with her paratrooper wings some 63 years after the event. You were reported saying all the usual platitudes regarding how much the nation owes to its veterans and all the customary vote-catching hyperbole.

But, Mr Touhig, to 35 000 British veterans of Malaysia your words do not ring out as a sincere endorsement of these beliefs. We have been denied a fundamental human right - the right to wear a medal that has been awarded to us by a Sovereign state and member of the Commonwealth.

Unless it has escaped you and your Parliamentary colleagues, Britain now lives in the 21st Century. Gone are the days when we peasants tugged our forelocks as the “great and the good” rode by. In a modern, democratic society, there are no legal, and certainly no moral, rules by which we can be denied what has been offered. If we were in the uniform of one of Her Majesty’s services, then yes, we must abide by the Queen’s Regulations. But we have served our time in that uniform. How any government in this modern world can have the sheer audacity to decide on which medals its citizens can, or cannot accept and/or wear is nothing short of scandalous. Your own position in this debacle is not exactly honourable. I understood, and the Veteran’s Agency web site reinforces the belief, that your brief is to champion the issues of the veteran. But the Agency, under your stewardship, has become just another mouthpiece for the much discredited Ministry of Defence and its puppet master, the Cabinet Office.

I urge you to examine your conscience and determine whether you have the credentials or the will to continue in a post that demands understanding of the veteran’s issues and also a dynamic will to take action on their behalf.

It seems to have escaped today’s politicians that they are elected to serve the Electorate, not to impose antiquated rules upon those who vote them into office. The promise of open government and transparent decision making, promised in 1997, has been proven in the case of the PJM to be just another gimmick to gain votes






Gerald Law (ex Royal Air Force – Borneo veteran)


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Gerald Law (ex RAF Borneo Veteran)

This to my MP who seems to have drifted into cyberspace, along with her majority.
Pingat Jasa Malaysia

Dear Ms Moffatt

Since first writing to you on the above subject in October 2005, your colleagues in government have not moved in any way towards clearing up the shameful situation into which the Cabinet Office, under the advisement of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has placed some 35 000 British veterans.

In your most recent letter to me you stated that “you had written to the Minister”. You omitted to say which Minister that was. For all I know it might well have been the Minister of the local Baptist Church, an honourable I am sure, but totally without any influence in the matter under discussion.

I have written to several Ministers, as have my comrades in the Fight 4 The PJM Campaign. I have to say that their track record in providing any response is abysmal to say the least, and those replies that have been received have been full of the usual platitudes about how the veterans are honoured, etc. But these are empty words and can only be believed when backed up by positive action.

I have to ask you now for a categorical statement of your support, or not, for the Campaign. The time has passed when we veterans could be placated by a pat on the head and a few complimentary words. Just as we were required to use action during our time in combat, so now we need to see action from those whom we have elected to serve us.
Yours Sincerely



Gerald Law (ex RAF Borneo veteran)


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Gerald Law (ex RAF Borneo Veteran)

This to Touhig's boss.
Dear Prime Minister
Subject: Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM)

I am writing with reference to a letter from your office on the above subject, dated 3 April 2006 and signed by G.Edwards on your behalf. Your letter states that the matter of the PJM is the responsibility of the Cabinet Office and that my letter was forwarded to them for their reply.

I have to say, Sir, that you appear to have little understanding as to the mysterious workings of that Office. None of the numerous letters and emails that I have sent since the beginning of the year has yet to receive a response. Indeed, I learn from another source that the individuals who sit on the HD Committee are not obliged to enter into any correspondence with the public. I used to believe that the plot lines of the TV programme “Yes Prime Minister” were exaggerated farce, but I see now that they were far more accurate than I thought.

The office of Prime Minister is the highest elected office in the land, but even that office must mind its P’s and Q’s when dealing with the Sir Humphrey Applebys of the Civil Service. Your appointee as Veteran’s Minister, Mr Touhig, was recently photographed awarding paratroops wings to a WWII veteran, some 63 years after the event. He made all the usual platitudinous statements about how he honours the veterans of the British Armed Forces, but as soon as the cameras are turned off, he adopts the customary attitude of a politician and refuses to support the veterans of a bygone conflict in getting their hard-earned PJM accepted for wear.

The Campaign to get this infamous outrage reversed has no political affiliations whatsoever, but your Party came to power in 1997 on a promise of open government and transparent decision-making. The matter of the PJM has not benefited from such lofty ideals. The decision was made behind closed doors, as a result of which Her Majesty has been deceived into creating a two-tier Commonwealth. The Committee that made the decision now hides behind its cloak of secrecy, manufactured from its own fabric of superiority.

As a matter of interest, my constituency is currently in the hands of a Labour MP with a majority of just 37. This figure is roughly 1000th of the number of veterans who have been insulted by the decision not allow the PJM to be worn. I trust that your colleagues have a better system of honouring its veteran MP’s when they are put out of office, than that shown towards British service veterans. Ah, but of course, there is the Peerage system.

No amount of ignoring the veterans, or issuing inconsistent statements, will make this Campaign go away. We are a group of ex-Servicemen who have won a war on terrorism, a fact which even those in the US are beginning to realise. They are currently re-evaluating their approach to insurgents and are studying the “hearts and minds” philosophy that was so successful in Malaysia. By comparison with what we went through in the jungle over 40 years ago, a fight with the bureaucracy that now confronts us is not daunting in the least.

Your own, Mr Ian Pearson, when making the Ministerial Statement that announced that we were being allowed to receive the PJM but that “formal permission to wear will not be given”, has not done us the honour of explaining just what that means. Several of your subordinates have asserted that although “formal” permission does not exist, there is no authority in the land that can stop us from wearing the medal. So just what schoolyard games are your team members playing?








Gerald Law (ex Royal Air Force – Borneo veteran)


_________________
Gerald Law (ex RAF Borneo Veteran)

The following may be of interest to all -

The Magna Carta 1215 - 'The Great Charter of English Liberty' section 40 - To no-one will we sell, to no-one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.

The Bill of Rights 1689 'An Act declaring the rights and liberties of the subject and settling the succession of the Throne'.

'that the pretending power of suspending the laws, or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal' and

'that it is the right of the subjects to PETITION THE KING, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal'.

Now if these are still the law of ENGLAND then those who are making laws or rules without going through parliament and who refuse the subjects right and justice are acting illegally and the Sovereign can be petitioned without fear of reprisals.

Worth a thought in our fight4thepjm and what has been improperly done in the name of our Sovereign and Parliament.

mcdangle wrote:

The following may be of interest to all -

snip 8<...........

'that it is the right of the subjects to PETITION THE KING, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal'.

further snip 8<........

We need to get one of our supporting MPs to set up an EDM for Parliamentarians to sign.

Perhaps we need to set up a Petition to HM The Queen?

We have every right to do so.

Your thoughts?


_________________
Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka,
from the HD Committee and its decision.

I fully agree with Inceni and we should consider, later after what we have finished what we have in the pipeline at the moment, a Petition to Her Majesty the Queen from a group of fight4thepjm. just asking her that as she refused us permission to wear the PJM (see Don Touhig's letter) could she reconsider this in view of the lies and bad advice she has been given from the 'secret society' who are cringing behind a vale of secrecy which they think will protect them from the truth.
I am no legal eagle but according to the laws of England no-one can refuse or interfere with a petition to the Sovereign, to do so would be illegal.

mcdangle wrote:

just asking her that as she refused us permission to wear the PJM (see Don Touhig's letter)

Especially that bit. HM Refused us, according to that disgraceful mob.

BTW MacDangle. If you call me Inceni again, I'll call you McDoodle!

Say after me, Iceni, Iceni, Iceni!




_________________
Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka,
from the HD Committee and its decision.

[quote="Iceni"]BTW MacDangle. If you call me Inceni again, I'll call you McDoodle! [quote]

Andy's variation is an improvement on the "Irene" I saw a few times!


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

BarryF wrote:

Andy's variation is an improvement on the "Irene" I saw a few times!

There's no way that I would have touched that one.




_________________
Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka,
from the HD Committee and its decision.

Sorry Irene, will definitely get it right the next time mcdoodledoodledoo!!

No real discourtesy intended ICENI ICENI ICENI ICENI there now, I have got it right.

mcdangle wrote:

No real discourtesy intended ICENI ICENI ICENI ICENI there now, I have got it right.

None taken.

Ah! I feel better already!


_________________
Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka,
from the HD Committee and its decision.