
SHAH ALAM: Even though there were no changes to the Army top two leadership, there were many transfers and promotions across the general officer ranks. The most notable was the post of the Army Western Field Command.
Former Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) headquarters Assistant Chief of Staff, Operational Training chief Mej Jen Malek Razak Sulaiman was promoted to Lt General on the morning of February 3 and in the afternoon took over as the Western Field commander.
Malek replaces Lt Jen Huzaimi Sabri who on February 4 took over as the Malaysia Institute of Defence and Security (MiDAS) chief executive from Mej Jen Yacob Samiran. Although not announced, Yacob has been appointed as the head of the National Training Department or PLKN.
Huzaimi was appointed as the Western Field Commander on September 6, 2023, replacing the incumbent Lt Jen Tengku Fauzi Tengku Ibrahim who was then made the Army deputy chief. Malek, is the second former Fifth Division General Officer Commanding (GOC) to be appointed as the Western Field Commander. The current Army chief General TS Hafizuddean Jantan was the first one.
Seventh Brigade commander Brigadier Suria Saad was promoted to Mej Jen on February 3 and is taking over as the Third Division GOC. Suria is the second former 19th RMR CO who is serving as a GOC. Second Division Mej Jen Fazal Abdul Rahman is the other one. Fazal served as the battalion CO from 2010 to 2011 and was replaced by Suria who also served around 14 months.
The 23rd Chief of Defence Force Jeneral Nizam Jaafar also served as the 19th RMR CO between 2003 and 2004.
It interesting to note that Suria was promoted directly to GOC from a field command, a brigade. The usual practice is for a brigadier to attend defence colleges – local or overseas – prior to a promotion to a two star – usually around two years time. Of course, this might have happened previously but not to my knowledge (I stand to be corrected). Two other brigadiers transferred around this time are both attending the National Defence College in Putrajaya.
Other changes include the transfer of Fourth Division GOC Mej Jen Reizal Ismail to the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) headquarters taking over the Assistant Chief of Staff, Personnel Services left vacant following the promotion of the current CDF.
Although not announced yet, Mej Jen Khairul Azmizal Natal will become the Fourth Division GOC. His successor as the 10th Para Brigade commander is Brigadier Khairul Anwar Soib who was promoted from Colonel on February 3.
Other notable promotion and transfer, Lt Jen Azhan Othman was made the MAF Headquarters chief of staff replacing Lt Gen Arman Rumaizi Ahmad who was appointed as the vice-chancellor of the National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM).
— Malaysian Defence
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Natural progression or any left fielders?
Natural but some surprises as well.
I know (I think) a Lt Jen heads a Medan and since we have two Army Medan, there are two Lt Jen. The other Lt Jen is the Army deputy chief: three three-stars in total. But how come I am reading there are a few other Lt Jen as well?
Yes it is part of the rank inflation which happened in mid-2000s as the government wanted to give higher pay bracket to officers without touching the pay scale prior to 2013. Yes, they get an extra Lt Jenerals, now, one at Markas ATM, one at UPNM (which a general once when ZZA was sent there in 2015) and now an extra one at MIDAS. With this they got six Lt Generals. It’s the same for the other services really, five each for RMAF as they also head the Joint Force Command. RMN four, the extra one is at Puspahanas, the other three is the deputy chief and the two fleet commanders. One
Technically speaking the three-star posts at Markas ATM, UPNM, Puspahanas and now MIDAS are service centric jawatan, it is really with Markas ATM as with the other flag officer posts.
Thats quite a number of ranks on the support roles. Are they mostly cold storage lockers (ZZA being the exception)?
Only those at the educational/think tank institutions are considered cold storage apart from JF Command. Those at Markas ATM will be rubbing shoulders with higher ups and also other civil servants.
So the ex Medan Barat Boss is sent to cold storage.
One could also look at it that the Army now got another three-star post in the ministry. MIDAS has always been an Army post(a two star post) while others could be rotated to other services.