It looks like every Malaysian leader who claims to represent the Indian community in the country also wants to bend over backwards to represent Indian migrant workers. Ever since a migrant Indian worker who escaped his abusive employer in Kuala Lumpur to showcase his sufferings on a Tamil Nadu talk show, every leader here, the ruling as well as on the opposition seems to be jumping up and down like an excited kindergarten child wanting to have the last say on the issue. To summarise the point at hand, a 40 years old carpenter from Tamil Nadu came into Malaysia, through an agent, with a tourist visa to work. His agent's arrangement was that he would be placed to commensurate his carpentering experience and that his tourist visa would be converted to a working visa in time.
Upon arrival, he found himself having his passport confiscated, sent to be enslaved in a banana-leaf restaurant from 5am to 11pm every day. His wages were withheld, exposed to verbal abuses, be witness to the immolation of a fellow worker, beatings and sexual abuses of other workers. Eventually, he made a dash out, walk almost 300km to another state, begged to survive, did odd jobs and finally made it back home with the help of a Malaysian NGO. He finally decided to give a 'no holds barred' interview about his escape from terror with a private TV in Chennai.
Almost immediately after that interview, the Human Resources Minister, the enforcement agencies and the employers all sprang into action to determine what actually happened. Investigations are ongoing. The bottom line is that many corners have been cut in his employment. And the whole fiasco has given the nation a bad name.
The employers have come out to clear the air. They give a totally different account of what actually transpired, backed with supporting evidence. Many procedural shortcuts were done on compassionate grounds. They asserted that workers were supplied by an agent, and the employee had mishandled petty cash. They insist that any criminal act was amongst the workers and had nothing to do with them.
We, the viewers, are clearly left baffled, confused about what actually happened. Obviously, one side is bending the truth or simply lying.
No one believes in anything anymore. We are all desensitised with the violence. So what if the worker is torched? We have seen worse things done by housewives with children upon their helpless domestic help. And we have witnessed mafia-like employers torturing their workers. Let us not forget the shenanigans of some disgruntled employees expressing their resentment in murderous ways. Hence, anything may be possible.
In this post-truth world where emotions and pre-conceived notions about something prevail over objective truth, media and access to expression just make the situation murkier than it already is. Even the juries assigned to give an unbiased decision on the final say will find it an uphill battle. Information seeps through the tiniest crack.
Video link-up: Host Lakshmy Ramakrishnan discusses Velayutham's complaint with Malaysia's Human Resource Minister in the talk show 'Nerkonda Paarvai'. Some netizens are up in arms with Minister's instantaneous response in this case. They allege that the Ministry had remained mum in many other issues involving its own citizens. Others suggest that the employers may have strong political links.
Pariyerum Perumal (2018) Story & Direction: Mari Selvaraj
The world out there is just there to bring you down. Those who succeed in life do so not because of the people around them but, despite the people breathing down their necks. The world is cruel, and every living day can be a struggle for some. But, the successful indeed have a treasure chest full of adventures and near-misses stories to tell about their journey to victory. These rag to riches stories may inspire another foothill soldier at the foot of the hill to scale greater heights. And at the end of the day, the ferocious desire to succeed burns within the individual. Events around him spark the tinder.
This is one such story of a person from the marginalised part of society trying against all odds to fit into Law College. He befriends a fellow female student who seems to be fond of him. Sure, we have seen such movies. A lone wolf with fighting skills that Hercules would be ashamed of, bulldozing through the army of the oppressors and proving his worth by the end of the film. Well, this one is different.
Equipped with picturesque aerial views of the Tamil Nadu countryside and the chaotic depiction of Thirunaveli town, we are shown caste discrimination. At the same time, it also exposes the broken education system where the underqualified is pushed up the ladder of education not based on their educational achievements but just to satisfy quotas of affirmative action. Imagine the protagonist entering a Law College without mastering simple English. The system failed, not that he is not clever; his school did provide good teachers.
His coursemates look at him with disdain for slowing them down and depriving another higher achiever of contributing to society from the word get-go. Despite the encouragement of others from the same boat, unshackling from the biases of society is not easy. The raging hormones of the young body are not helping either.
The story tells the transformation of a timid young man who grows up knowing his sanctioned place in society and not wanting to rock the boat to a hot-blooded bloke who screams out to exert his rightful place in the community - all done in a progressive art form that infuses celluloid artistry and real-life reality. The song 'Karuppi, Karuppi' is catchy. It combines a Tamil funeral wailing rant (oppaari, ஒப்பாரி) with rap lyrics and modern musical instruments.
This film is said to be able to showcase the plights of the backward classes in India, much as Speilberg's 'Schindler's List' did to highlight the pain that the Jews endured during the Nazi occupation. Discrimination amongst people is as old as civilisation itself. It cannot be resolved within a single generation. But, like how the movie ends, it all starts with sitting at the same table and sharing a drink together. That also is already a significant achievement in certain communities in India when a person of the lowest of the caste denomination can sit eye to eye sipping chai.
BR Ambedkar, the Indian polymath, an economist, a jurist, a philosopher, politician and social reformer, was once at a crossroad. Having had first-hand experience pulling himself out of poverty and earning himself a myriad of international recognitions, the public's discriminatory behaviour was still palpable. The honour of leading the committee to draft the Indian Constitution meant nothing. Post-Independent India still oozed caste discrimination bigotry.
He ventured into the possibility of leading the whole oppressed and backward communities to embrace another religion. Babasaheb Ambedkar took a deep dive into various religions, including Islam and Christianity, and finally decided upon Buddhism. About Islam, he had this to say. The Brotherhood of Islam is not the brotherhood of Man but an exclusive club to care for their own kind.
Even though the religion preaches egalitarianism, in reality, this is far from it. The Arabs like to think they are superior because the Prophet was an Arab. With their long civilisational history behind them, the Persians would get offended if he is confused for an Arab. The whites are of a different class, but the Asians and Africans go nowhere near the status of the Arabs.
Muslims comprise 21% of the world population, but they share only 5% of its GDP. 57 Muslim majority countries (out of 195) have 1,840 universities (25,000 worldwide). To date, there are only three Muslim Nobel Laureates in the field of science - Mohammad Abdus Salam in Physics (Pakistan),
Aziz Sancar (Turkey) and Ahmad Zewali (Egypt) both in Chemistry. Unfortunately, Abdus Salam, as he is of Ahmadiyya denomination, has naturally been declared a non-Muslim by Pakistan. Interestingly, all these Professors reached their zenith only after leaving their home countries for further education. Even after their successes, they had to settle overseas to delve deep into their research.
Despite all the bad publicity surrounding these countries, there seems to be no concerted effort to correct the situation. It is not business as usual, though. Many of the occupants of these countries lament that all their problems are perpetuated by the enemies of religion. By allowing radical belief ideologies to take a mould, everyone looks contended, seeing all of mankind's progress take a U-turn and move into a retrograde fashion. Women empowerment has gone down the drain, the thirst for knowledge has fizzled out, public amenities have collapsed, but nobody is deterred. They have a bigger calling - to fulfil self-proclaimed God's commands and to prepare for the afterlife. That is it. The cavemen savage laws that our ancestors worked so hard to rectify have made a pompous comeback with the help of petrodollars.
This miniseries, which is set in a country with the capital city with dubious infamy as the rape capital of the world, is said to give a realistic portrayal of what happens at the ground level. It shows how young pubescent girls are brainwashed through radical Islamic teachings and packed off to ISIS territories as jihadi brides. They are given the wrong impression of the supposed land of milk and honey in the palaces of ISIL. The boys are given weapons to fight in the streets of Syria. There are promised a place in Jannah as if the teachers have gone there and have a first-hand account of what goes on there.
The story starts with Suleiman and his two teenage daughters. Suleiman is an Islamic immigrant to Sweden who has personal experience seeing how radical Islam can spoil a nation. His girls lead an everyday Swedish teenage life - school, friends, boys, mobile phones and basketball. However, an assistant teacher who is part of a more significant movement goes on a recruitment drive preying on troubled and confused teenagers.
Meanwhile, in Islamic State, a Swedish girl, Pervin, who ran away from Sweden to become a jihadi bride, wants to return. Now, with a four-month child in her arms and living amidst daily bombing and drone attacks, it is not what she signed up for. She wants out. Through a friend with a mobile phone, Pervin managed to contact a social worker in Sweden.
The miniseries, through the 8 episodes, tells us how the Swedish police try to rescue Pervin and at the same time try to save Suleiman's daughter, who made a dash to Daesh Land. Interesting.
I cannot help but think of Ingmar Bergmann's film 'The Virgin Spring' when viewing this show. 'The Virgin Spring' was set at a time when Paganism was having a hard day keeping its congregation. Christianity was making inroads, and it was the flavour of the times as more of the affluent part of the society took the plunge into Christiandom. Unfortunately, it looks like Christianity has had the same fate a millennium later, trying to ward foreign teachings from permeating their community. Life is cyclical; history repeats itself!
If anything happens I love you! (2020) Animated Short Film
This 11-minutes short film won itself an Academy Award in the Best Short Animated film category. In a concise graphic representation, the storytellers managed to capture the essence of emotions surrounding the loss of a young child. This emotional turmoil can make or break a family unit. The gamut of blaming, what-ifs, guilt and fault finding missions would eventually lead to a brick wall among the living but definitely not bring back the dead.
The death of a member of a family who has not lived his full potential, however, may invoke a myriad of responses. They say an addition to the family, especially the first-born, unites families. The sight of a newborn will make everyone all jello but strong enough to cement whatever minor frictions that may have been present in day-to-day dealings. It may make or break the bonds between the close relatives, especially parents, in the case of a young child.
This short film with no dialogue but a single song, 1950 by King Princess, tells the pain that a couple of parents endure when their pre-teen is killed in a random school shooting. The couple gradually grows apart with overpowering grief. All the while, their genuine emotions, feeling for each other and worries about each other are depicted by their shadows. When the door of their daughter's room, which they refuse to open all this while, suddenly opens, both parents enter the room to the sound of their daughter's favourite song. They reminisce about all the joyful times that they had together through a series of flashbacks. Finally, they shed their tears and reached a resolution.
The film highlights the problem of random shootings in the American public space, especially schools. Over the years, the interval between these types of shooting is getting shorter, and the types of weapons used are getting complex. It is no more pistols or hunting rifles. Instead, we are talking about assault rifles and semi-automatics. Pretty soon, the general public may be walking around with bazookas as it is their right to bear arms to protect themselves as permitted by the second amendment of the American Constitution.
So many Presidents have come and gone promising to put a stop to all this gun violence. Even though many countries, the UK and Australia included, are testimony that this is indeed possible with very tight regulation of weapons ownership, such a situation will never happen in the US. The gun lobbying groups hold the purse string to the political parties. Being the central capital of weapon provider for the whole world to fight each other to maintain American interest and sustain despotic regimes worldwide, it will bad for business to put an all right ban on guns.
Anti guns will continue doing their thing. Aggrieved parties will pour their heartfelt disappointments, and the world will light an occasional candle at shooting sights, but the stock owners of Smith & Wesson and Colt's Defence will continue run laughing all the way to the bank. And they justify their rights by saying, "People kill people, not guns!" But, what they do not understand is that people just get a bruised face, dented ego or at most a broken rib with physical might. A gun has only one mission, to cause severe damage to the victim with minimal effort of its user.
All the loving feelings wither over the years. A child may make or break, not only by what turns out of them but in wanting to give the best for them. Differing parenting approaches and domineering-type of parenting accentuates drift. You ask yourself, "Is this the same woman that I married? "You coax yourself telling, "No, these are just battle wounds traversing the journey of life!"
At the outset, it must be mentioned that this film is not for the faint-hearted or squirm at the sight of animal slaughter or of plain view of a surgical operating field. The scenes, however, are essential to driving home the message embedded behind the story. As the title suggests, the selling point of a biriyani dish is the flavour derived from the juices of the meat (flesh). Vegetarian biriyani is no biriyani at all. This kind of movie is not suitable for family viewing as some scenes are obviously of adult content.
Biriyani is quintessentially a Muslim dish popularised by the invading Muslim marauders. Some say it originated from Persia. The cooks found a novel way to feed a large army - slow cook meat, rice, vegetables and spices buried in the hot desert sands.
In the 7th century, when Islam was revealed to Beduin herders, the religion boasted of features way ahead of its time. Putting an end to female infanticide, the liberation of slaves and empowerment of women were considered revolutionary. Somewhere along the way, the rest of the world thinks that they had lost the plot. What gave? Its practitioners tend to imagine that it is patriarchal and discriminatory against its female members and put them behind as second-class citizens. At least, this is the message that the movie seems to convey.
The flesh that the title alludes to is the flesh that Man cannot live without. It refers to the pleasures of the flesh that Man would die for. The piece of flesh that an adolescent boy loses reinforces his entry into the toxic male-dominated society.
The story starts with Khateeja, who is stuck in a loveless marriage. She views herself just as a piece of vessel for her husband release of carnal desires. That is all. She holds no say in the extended family (her husband's family). Her mother-in-law hates her and already has plans for her son's re-marriage, even though they have an adolescent son.
Khateeja is summoned to her mother's home to attend to her mother, who, according to the caretaker, is becoming increasingly difficult to handle. Khateeja's mother is down with depression after her fisherman husband went missing at sea and her son, who went to the Middle East, never contacted her. It is soon realised that Khateeja's brother is involved in Islamic militant activities and is hunted down by the police. Things become bad afterwards. The mother is ostracised, ousted from her home and is excommunicated from the local Muslim community for bringing shame to the fold. Khateeja's mother-in-law uses that opportunity to persuade her son to send Khateeja a triple talaq text message. With the hit of the 'send' button, Khateeja loses everything: her son, husband, belongings, and self-respect. Furthermore, she and her mother have to endure constant harassment and sexual advances from the police.
Khateeja and her mother later end up finding a safe place in a madrasah in Tamil Nadu. Even though the place was divine-sanctioned and all, many unsavoury things were happening under everybody's nose. Asylum seekers were working part-time as call girls. She becomes friendly with a timid but kind imam. Long story short, Khateeja joins the flesh business, ends up pregnant, has a miscarriage, and for the last hurrah, she gets back at all the people that wronged her one way or another throughout her life in her own cruel and disgusting way.
Interspersed through the film are TV talk show snippets of politicians and social workers dissecting the problems plaguing the Muslim community in India and suggesting solutions to repair their image and probably fit back into India's plural society. For example, they pinpoint the lack of educational opportunities for girls and their early marriage as needing mending. Yet, they actually have the capacity and self-confidence to do things independently, as shown by many of the characters. It is just that the social mores expect them to play second fiddle to the preset hierarchical order.
The Family Man (Miniseries, Season 1,2; 2019-21) Amazon Prime
I would not have given a damn to this web series if not for the adverse publicity it garnered after the release of its trailer for the second season. Many people and leaders from the ruling party from the state of Tamil Nadu were up in arms and wanted the show to be banned. But, as they say in showbiz lingo, any news is good news. All that hoopla just piqued the interest of even those remotely interested in the turmoil perpetrated on India by its neighbours. Suddenly everybody took an interest and have become experts on India's strategic defence. Its detractors, however, say that it is India's uninvited meddling of their affairs that is at fault. But, perhaps, it is not so straightforward.
India, much like Israel, is surrounded by neighbours who try to correct their cognitive dissonance by shoving down their narrow and destructive ideologies across their borders. However, practising passive resistance or turning the other cheeks will not this time, hence the preventive defensive measures.
TASC is a fictitious branch of India's National Investigation Agency (NIA). Its main objective is (like Minority Report) to whiff off any potential threats and nip it off at the bud. It does its work via its telecommunication intelligence and contacts. The protagonist of the story, Srikanth Tiwari, leads this highly sensitive and secretive agency. Even Srikanth's family thinks that he is just a paper-pushing civil servant who appears busier than he actually is. Srikanth has a wife, a teacher, and two teenage children. The stories of the two seasons comprise Srikanth's manoeuvering his roles of a high-level espionage and a family man without these two functions overlapping.
Season One narrates TASC's supervision of three captured ISIS terrorists. It reveals a twisted plan involving ISI of Pakistan and a grand scheme to cause significant damage to India. Srikanth has to handle his children's teenage angst, his wife's possible infidelity, and the demand for further affluence in life on his home front.
It is the second season that captured everybody hearts. After achieving only half success in trying to avert a major chemical poisoning of New Delhi where 80 over citizens perished (but 1 million over were saved), Tewari leaves the force to join the private sector. After a gruelling exercise trying to fit into the new age labour force, he is relieved when his boss calls him back. Apparently, the baddies from Season 1, an ex-Major from the Pakistani and an ISIS terrorist, have joined forces with the remnants of what sounds like LTTE to plan a major assassination attempt on Indian PM, which she is scheduled to meet the Sri Lankan PM for talks.
The storytellers took the liberty to take parts of what happened in history more than 30 years ago to retrofit it to the storyline. A clandestine Sri Lanka Tamil militant group in the Northern part of the island, akin to LTTE, is decimated by the Government Army led by General Rupatunga. The rebel leaders, however, escape; two to the UK and one to Tamil Nadu. Many years later, the rebel leaders in exile managed to get recognition for an independent Tamil country, within Sri Lanka, from many foreign countries.
India and Sri Lanka are at peace. The Prime Minister agrees to capture and return the rebel who is hiding in Chennai. Unfortunately, he is accidentally killed in the ambush. This angers the rebel leaders in the UK. One of them teams up with the ex-Pakistan army from Season 1 and an ISIS terrorist to assassinate the Indian PM, who has an uncanny resemblance to West Bengal CM, Mamta Banerjee, who will be meeting his Sri Lankan counterpart in Chennai for bilateral talk. The dormant rebels and sympathisers all rally up for this big event.
Chellam Sir
Twitter's favourite meme trigger.
This is where Tewari and his team come in with their expertise to avert the crime. They team up with the Tamil Nadu police for this mission. Unlike most Bollywood and Hindi productions, this show does not look at the Tamilians condescendingly or make fun of their accents or mannerism. If anything, it tries to avert stereotyping of the South of India into one homogenous piece of culture.
Meanwhile, Srikanth's domestic problems escalate. When the top is shaky, the bottom crumbles. His children go wayward. His 15 years girl befriends an older boy who is actually an ally of ISIS.
A lovable character worthy of mention is that of a retired NIA agent, Chellam. HE is Srikanth's contact in Chennai about the Sri Lankan Tamil rebels. He appears in disguises and camouflage and is described as the most paranoid person in the world. Fans are already talking about spin-offs based on his work experience, or possibly he could be a double-crosser! Srikanth's sidekick blended well into his role. His nemesis, the lean, mean fighting machine in Raji, is a shift from the usual larger-than-life portrayal of a female Indian actress.
Raji as the emotionally-drained rebel Samatha Akkineni
So, what was all the controversy about the show? Nothing actually. After viewing the trailer, many thought it would be harping on the historical events that occurred during the 1990s when LTTE was hunted down by Sri Lankan Singhala Government. The State of Tamil Nadu, bonded with Northern Sri Lanka via a common language, Tamil, were sympathetic to the rebel cause. They provided asylum and a base for their activities. The Indian Central Government, however, were o the same page with the Lankan government for peace on the island. The rebels saw that as encouraging the Lankan army to basically carry out genocide. That culminated in Rajiv Gandhi's assassination by a suicide squad during a political rally.
As it always happens, people who know the least make the loudest noise. People demand a ban without viewing a performance or reading a book. In their simple minds, if everybody else says so, it must be right. In the eyes of the learned, it is the Kruger-Dunning effect in its full glory.
[P.S. The state powers in Tamil Nadu are getting hot under their collars about this series as the state is trying to get the seven people sentenced for life pardoned for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination commuted by the Indian President after spending 30 years behind bars. The powers that be are fearful that the public sentiment may be rekindled of a time when their leader was blown away with plastic-bomb impregnated garland.]
At a time when tranquillity is a distant memory and race politics is rearing its ugly head, it is only appropriate that we re-evaluate our stand on what it is to be a Malaysian. Does it encompass only the majority of people of a particular ethnicity who dominate most fields, as determined by the country's social engineering policies? Does it refer to the earliest occupants of the country? Does being a Malaysian mean being a Muslim only? What happened to all the people who sacrificed their hearts and minds for the nation all this while? Their “blood, toil, tears and sweat” mean nothing?
To the pea-brained who insists that Malaysia is only for Malay-Muslims and the rest are most temporary occupants of the land who should be thankful for their temporary occupation, read this.
The Dass legacy: Soldering on
By Adrian David
June 14, 2021, New Straits Times.
Flying Officer (Rtd) David Samuel Dass in his Royal Air Force uniform during War War I. - Pic courtesy of Brig-Gen Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass
KUALA LUMPUR: "No one is a man, until he has been a soldier."
This is one adage the Dass family firmly believes in - for four of them have collectively clocked an impressive 110 years of service for the nation.
Their foray with the armed forces began with their patriarch - Flying Officer (Rtd) David Samuel Dass who had served with Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War I .
Then, David's son Warrant Officer II (Rtd) William David Dass continued the family's tradition with the Malaysian Army.
In later years, William's sons Maritime First-Admiral (Rtd) Christopher Ravindran Dass and Brigadier-General Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass donned the uniform.
Dr Alexander, who is due to retire on May 4 next year upon reaching 60, was promoted to a 'one-star' general recently and is serving as the maxillofacial surgeon and department head at the 94th Armed Forces Hospital at Terendak Camp in Malacca.
Warrant Officer II (Rtd) William David Dass flanked by his sons Capt Christopher Ravindran Dass (right) and Colonel Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass after laying a wreath on Warrior’s Day at the cenotaph in Penang in 2011. - Pic courtesy of Brig-Gen Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass
He is just among a handful of medical specialists in the discipline with the Armed Forces.
Dr Alexander told The New Straits Times that it was the wishes of his grandfather David to have at least one 'son' in each generation of their family, to serve with the armed forces.
"There was no force and we took it upon ourselves to put our foot forward, when the nation really needed able-bodied youths during the difficult and trying years," said Dr Alexander, who hopes his nephews or grandchildren would continue with the tradition.
Recalling David's service, Dr Alexander said his grandfather had served with the RAF's 63rd Squadron as an officer from 1916 to 1920.
"He saw action in the Mediterranean and against the Turkish Army in Mesopotamia (Iraq).
"His foray earned him the British WW I 'Victory Medal' and a 'British War Medal'.
"David opted out of service after his stint with the RAF and went into business, before moving to Malaya in 1930," said Dr Alexander, who is married to Khasturi Bhai Muniswaran, a former CIMB banking executive.
William had joined the Police Volunteer Reserve as a 16-year-old.
In 1954, he became a Junior Civil Liaison Officer (JCLO) and was posted with the First battalion Royal Malay Regiment based at the Lintang Camp in Sungai Siput, Perak.
"He was tasked with gathering information on the movement of the Communist Party of Malaya's (CPM) movement in the area.
"Dad often related to me his encounters with the CPM terrorists deep in the jungles of Malaya.
"Among his tales were how he had to sleep with the bodies of his dead comrades, until they were safely retrieved to be given a burial with honours," said Dr Alexander.
In 1955, William was among those from the Royal Armour Regiment who were deployed during the 'Baling Talks' in Kedah, between the Malayan government and CPM leader Chin Peng.
During the First Emergency period of 1948-1960, William was tasked with tracking down and monitoring the movements of another CPM leader, C.T. Perumal.
In 1962, William was chosen to serve under the United Nations peace-keeping mission in Bukavu, Congo.
In 1970, William also served as the chief staff assistant to the Malaysian defence adviser at the high commission in London, Britain.
He retired as a Warrant Officer II, after 29 years of service in 1980.
Dr Alexander said his elder brother Christopher had initially joined the Royal Malaysian Navy in 1980 and rose to become a commander.
Warrant Officer II (Rtd) William David Dass (second from left) with his fellow comrades and British expatriate children in Congo in 1962. - Pic courtesy of Brig-Gen Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass
"In 2005, he was among the pioneer batch of officers and men in the newly established Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), starting off as a captain.
"He went on to serve as commandant of the MMEA Academy in Kuantan, Pahang before retiring in 2019 after almost 40 years of service," said Dr Alexander, who had completed Form Five at the Penang Free School in 1979.
A few years later, he earned a Public Service Department scholarship to pursue a bachelor of dental surgery degree at the University of Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan.
He was cited on the Dean's list and was the first Malaysian to win a gold medal there, for his excellent results upon graduation in 1991.
Upon his return, Dr Alexander was seconded to the Ministry of Health and served at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah for about two years.
"In 1993, I chanced upon the opportunity to serve with the Armed Forces Royal Medical Corps as a dental officer.
"I accepted a commission as a captain and was duly posted to the 2nd Battalion Royal Ranger Regiment at the Tambun Camp in Ipoh, Perak," he said.
Five years later, he attended a staff officer's course in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan and won the commandant's prize for his thesis on total quality management.
"In 2000, I was offered to purse a four-year post-graduate degree in oral maxillofacial surgery at University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.
"In late 2005, I was the facial trauma surgeon with the Armed Forces team despatched on a humanitarian mission to the earthquake mission in Battagram, Pakistan," he said.
In 2009, he was the Malaysian Medical Commander (MMU-7) with the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso), tasked with assisting and treating military observers and land mine victims.
"Part of my job entailed me to undergo an airborne course to complete the compulsory eight static-fall parachute jumps off an aeroplane.
"With Terendak Camp as the home of the Army's 10th Para Brigade, my 14 years there helped me to better understand the stress and strain of the soldiers," said Dr Alexander, who earned the unique maroon beret worn by elite commandos who are a key element of the Armed Forces' Rapid Deployment Force.
Brigadier-General Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass with his wife Khasturi Bhai Muniswaran. - Pic courtesy of Brig-Gen Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass
He added that to earn the maroon beret, he had to undergo a myriad of strenuous exercises and trainings for about two solid months.
"These included the 'Pegasus' survival exercises which were tough ordeals both in the jungles and at sea.
"My first airborne jump over 2,000 feet in 2007 was truly an exhilarating experience, as I managed to avoid hitting the ground like a sack of potatoes," he said.
Dr Alexander was also exposed to joint military exercises with Indonesia, Australia and the United States' armed forces, apart from the regular combat exercises with the 10th Para Brigade.
"Having the opportunity to train with foreign armies was always a unique experience as it allowed me to share and exchange knowledge with them.
"It also certainly strengthened our camaraderie," said Dr Alexander, who has special interests in dental implantology, laser and facial trauma.
Owing to his vast experience, Dr Alexander was roped in to initiate diploma courses for dental staff assistants at the Armed Forces Medical Institute in Malacca, as well as ensuring that the 94th Terendak Hospital was of an international-class medical facility to adequately for soldiers.
He paid tribute to the gallant officers and men of the Armed Forces who toiled to safeguard the sovereignty of the nation.
To improve his communication and leadership skills, Dr Alexander is actively involved in Toastmasters International.
"I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the Armed Forces leadership for their confidence and trust in me to fulfil my responsibilities as a doctor and an officer.
"I am privileged and fortunate enough to be given an opportunity to further my studies and career. I have no regrets donning the uniform as it had provided abundant opportunities and possibilities to advance myself. I realise that this country of ours is a land of prosperity and generosity, of strength and unity, of opportunity and work," he said.
