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Help us to help you - send us letters, emails, images
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Post Help us to help you - send us letters, emails, images 
We are in the process of establishing a Fight4thePJM Document Archive.

Our objective is to create a searchable database of papers that everyone will have access to via their web browser. Hard copies will be kept in our Admin HQ and available on request.

We are collecting together all relevant papers, letters, emails and images.

When making papers available we shall hide all personal information unless you ask us to publish it.

The idea is that all us of will be able to search the database for information that will help us develop our campaign for the right to wear the PJM.



But we need your help. We need you to send us any and all of the papers that you have - letters you have sent at any time in the last 18 months, copies of emails and images. Letters, emails, images that you have received. If you send us an original, we'll copy it and return the original to you.

All papers sent to us will be automatically entered into our Star Letter competition! So you may win a prize just for putting a copy letter in the post to us.

If you have any questions about this, please contact us via http://www.fight4thepjm.org/index_addresses.htm and we'll get back to you with answers.

We believe that the outcome to this fight could lie somewhere in this archive. So please help us to help you:

*** Send us letters you have received - we'll sort them out, copy them, and we'll return them to you.

*** Send us copies of letters you have sent - again, we'll sort them out, copy them, and we'll return them to you.

*** Forward to us any emails you have received.

*** Forward to us any emails you have sent.

*** Send us any images (including those of documents) but please send in as high a resolution as possible - we'll return them to you.

You do not need to write a covering letter unless you wish to do so. Just send us what you have.

Thank you.

PS And remember, anything that you originated will be automatically entered into our Star Letter competition so you may win a Prize while Helping us to Help you!


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

Do you require all the correspondence I have received or can you obtain these off the Forum pages, I guess the same applies to other people.


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John Cooper wrote:
Do you require all the correspondence I have received or can you obtain these off the Forum pages, I guess the same applies to other people.


Ideally, we'd start again by receiving the letters, images, or copies thereof.

The reason, as you know, is time - we now have over 5,000 posts on this web site and sorting through them will be an immense job ... but we have staff who could, at a pinch, do it.

If people are kind enough to send us everything they think is relevant, we'll copy, scan and archive - having sent back all papers to the donors. That's the easiest way to do it from our perspective.

Thanks,

Barry


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

This one from Ms Eleri Pengelly is important in that under The Freedom of Information Act I asked who advised HMQ from the HD Committee on the non-wearing issue. You can see from the reply that the guilty are being protected, democracy, NOT!




[


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.........and this one from Ian Pearson when he was Secretary at The DTI/FCO




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This is a letter to/from Chris Edge relating to a friends award of a medal from 40+ years ago where he was given unrestricted wear by HMQ

chris.edge@fco.gov.uk To: johncooper
Subject: FW: PJM
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:36:01 +0100

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Edge (London)
Sent: 29 June 2006 16:34
To: 'JOHN COOPER'
Subject: RE: PJM


Dear Mr Cooper.
Thank you for your e-mail.
I regret that I do not have the details available of the Sultan of Johore's Coronation medal, the eligibility criteria, and to whom permission was given to wear the medal. It is likely that the papers relating to an individual over 40 years ago are no longer available, even if the name were known. I do know, however, that each case relating to the accepting and wearing a non-British award is considered under the rules governing the accepting and wearing of non-British awards. I am sure that this will have been the case with a medal from 1959. Similarly, the Malaysian request to present the PJM was considered under the rules. Each request is considered separately, and it does not follow that when approval/permissions are given in the case of one medal the same, or any approval/permissions, will necessarily be given in the case of a different medal.
Yours sincerely,
Chris Edge

-----Original Message-----
From: JOHN COOPER [mailto:johncooper]
Sent: 24 June 2006 09:04
To: chris.edge@fco.gov.uk
Subject: PJM


Mr Chris Edge at The Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Reference the right to wear the PJM Medal

Can you please explain to me why a friend of mine has the UNRESTRICTED right to wear the Sultan of Johores Coronation Medal from 1959 as approved by Duncan Sandys in the early 1960's and yet I cannot wear UNRESTRICTED the PJM?

Details of letters can be found here

http://community.webshots.com/album/542043451QHRWkQ

If you do not know the answer can you please pass this email on to someone who can answer

Thank you
John Cooper


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Just had this in, boy do they start early on a Monday these days!



ITS OFFICIAL, A SOUVENIR Or KEEPSAKE

RE: The Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 08:36:10 +0100
From: "Coney, Richard Mr" <Richard.Coney506@mod.uk> Add to Address Book
To: "JOHN COOPER" <johncooper

Dear Mr Cooper,



The policy relating to the acceptance and wearing of foreign medals by British citizens is administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This is not a matter for the Ministry of Defence. You should write to the Honours Unit, Old Admiralty Building, London, SW1A 2PA.



However, the information you have been given is correct. The Queen has granted permission for British citizens to accept the medal, but as a souvenir or keepsake only and not for wear. There is no right of appeal. It is not a matter of law or of your statutory rights. As a civilian you can do what you like. You are not breaking any laws if you choose to ignore the decision, but it is considered a discourtesy to The Sovereign if you do. Many veterans will wear the medal regardless. No-one will actually tell them not to.



The FCO will be able to provide you with more information if required.



I hope this is helpful.



R T Coney

DS Sec – Honours 1

MOD

London




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From: JOHN COOPER [mailto:johncooper]
Sent: 06 August 2006 09:13
To: Coney, Richard Mr
Subject: The Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal



Dear Mr Coney



I am soon to be awarded The Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal by the Government of Malaysia. The department I am addressing this letter to has denied me my rights to wear this medal as a civilian via Her Majesty The Queen, can you please inform me what my rights of appeal are against this, in my opinion, unfair decision.



I am not representing a group of people here, it is an individual request by myself, there are laws in the UK and the EC giving me the right to appeal, please advise me of my statutory rights.



If for any reason your department cannot answer this question, would you please forward this on to someone who can with the courtesy of a reply



cc Sir Michael Lord, MP Deputy Speaker of The House Of Commons



Yours sincerely



John Cooper


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This is a copy of a letter I sent to major Australian newspapers at the time of Tony Blair's visit to Australia. Unfortunately I am unaware if any made it into print

25 March 2006

Dear Editor

This week the British Prime Minister Tony Blair is on an official visit to Australia and is scheduled to visit the Australian War Memorial. During this visit he may well hang his head in shame at the way his government is treating the 35000 British Borneo and Malay veterans regarding the wearing of the Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal.
In 2005 the Malaysian Government awarded this commemorative medal to commonwealth servicemen who served in the Malay emergency and the confrontation between 1958 and 1966 in which many commonwealth servicemen made the ultimate sacrifice. Known as the forgotten war it was successful in stopping the spread of communism through the Malay Peninsula.

The Australian and New Zealand governments accepted this generous offer from the Malaysians with no restrictions on the wearing of the medal. The British government at first refused the offer but after much lobbying agreed to accept the offer but placed a restriction that it cannot be worn ‘formally’. This reduces the medal to little more than a trinket and is a major insult to both the Malaysian people and the 35000 British Malay/Borneo veterans. It is no surprise that Australia has removed itself from the British honours system, a system that reflects an outdated and colonist approach out of touch with the modern era.
If you don’t learn anything else from your trip down under Prime Minister Blair at least learn from Australia how to honour and respect your veterans.

Ivor Rich

Malay/Borneo veteran
Ph. 07 54788712 Mb. 0416530700


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From a grovelling 'admin' ...

JohnC has a fundamental issue to resolve and we do not want to intrude into that.

Can I move these Coney posts so that this Topic is left for the less exciting Archive issue? I'd leave JohnC's important message exchanges for the archive, of course.

Thanks.

Signed Anon (with tin hat at the high port)

Thanks JohnC and George - the posts have been (re)moved but the critical ones stay for the archive.


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia
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I have just received this from The FCO, same old horse manure, just a different day

Dear Mr Cooper

Thank you for your e-mail of 8 July to Margaret Beckett, concerning the Pingat Jasa Malaysia. I have been asked to reply, as the Honours Secretariat is responsible for the administration of the Rules governing the accepting and wearing of non-British awards. I apologise for the lateness of my reply.

Each request for British citizens to be permitted to receive and wear a non-British award is considered on its merits, in the light of the Rules governing the accepting and wearing of non-British awards, taking into account any special circumstances at the time of the request. There is no entitlement to any non-British award.

Generally speaking, neither accepting nor wearing a non-British award is permitted when the events relating to the medal in question took place more than 5 years before initial consideration and/or when a British medal has been awarded for the same service.

The exception to the Rules recommended by the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals (HD) with regard to the PJM seeks to recognise the generous gesture by the Malaysians authorities while preserving the integrity of the British Honours System - a key point of which is that only one medal may be worn in recognition of a particular event or action.

The wearing of non-British awards is not policed, and no law is broken if an individual wears such an award, even though official permission to do so may not have been given. It is a matter for the individual concerned whether they wish to wear the PJM on this basis.

Kind regards

Caron

Caron Mason-Mahon

Deputy Honours Secretary
Honours Secretariat
Protocol Directorate
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Rm 1/62
Old Admiralty Building
Spring Gardens
London
SW1A 2PA
Tel: 020 7008 1028
Fax: 020 7008 0971

E-mail: caron.mason-mahon@fco.gov.uk



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John Cooper wrote:
I have just received this from The FCO, same old horse manure, just a different day


I don't agree,John.

You have elicited the first part-definition of "integrity of the system".

Now, if we read your letter in the context that 'they' have suggested that the double medal rule for the PJM is a potentially lost cause for them, then I see some mileage in this letter. Without the double medal rule, which was mentioned to me this morning by the MoD, then their case in respect of the unique PJM is very flimsy.

Many thanks,

Barry


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia
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I'm very glad that you 'see some mileage' in the latest emission from the FCO's 'fudge factory' Barry....I rec'd the identical message myself, but obviously didn't read it carefully enough...however, it now appears to be the current 'standard' see att link.......

http://www.fight4thepjm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4578&highlight=#4578


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Jock

The Whirligig just keeps on going around and around there is no let up is there, I really would like to bet that these people sleep well in their beds at night.

One of us had a note about being Civil to Civil Servants, who was it, why not place it here that might just go well together with the one I received yesterday.

Barry/Admin

If this is in the wrong place either move or delete the post please


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Although this is nothing to do with the PJM directly it may well have a bearing in our eventual fight http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk/mk4custompages/CustomPage.aspx?PageID=43167&sectionID=8708

...........and it is keeping our archive ammo in one place!

Please only use this thread for ARCHIVE MATERIAL, if you wish to comment on Civil Servants please place these here, otherwise the above posts will get buried

http://www.fight4thepjm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4604#4604



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From the Scottish Parliament, I am not sure why the period 1953-1957 has been included, I find this perplexing

S2M-3489 Christine Grahame: Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal—That the Parliament regrets the decision by Her Majesty’s Government to refuse to allow veterans of the Malaysian emergency from 1953 to 1957, including the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, to accept the Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal; notes that other Commonwealth nations such as New Zealand and Australia have allowed their veterans to accept this recognition; further notes that this recognition will extend shortly to veterans from Fiji, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe; considers that this refusal is wholly unacceptable and inexplicable, and therefore urges the Scottish Executive, on behalf of the Scottish regiments such as the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, to make immediate representations to Her Majesty’s Government to right this obvious wrong which insults both veterans and the Malaysian Government.

Supported by: Michael Matheson, Alex Neil, Donald Gorrie, Brian Adam, Robin Harper, Mr Adam Ingram, Eleanor Scott, Roseanna Cunningham*, Alasdair Morgan*, Mr Kenny MacAskill*



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