However, its president Brig-Gen (R) Mohamed Arshad Raji said, there was a difference between being against the government and being against bad and corrupt leaders.

He reminded the public, and national leaders, to “never ever doubt our loyalty and patriotism to our king and country” and not to insinuate that the organisation indulged in “politics of hatred”.

Arshad said this in response to remarks by Minister of Defence Hishammudin Hussein that Patriot was one of many groups all out to influence the minds of army, navy and air force members to go against the government. Hishammuddin had yesterday criticised this sort of “politics of hatred”.

Arshad said in a statement today that the “careless and irresponsible” statement by the minister had shocked his members.

“Patriot will never ever go against the government. We were once members of government organisations, the Malaysian Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, and Royal Malaysian Police.”

He added: “There is a difference between being against the government, which Patriot is certainly not, and being against bad and corrupt leaders.”

He said if Hishammuddin had “bothered to check” Patriot’s media statement on Feb 14, he would have seen that it had not criticised anybody, including the the National Service programme.

Arshad said one of the organisation’s projects, mentioned in the media statement, was the Patriot Youth Leadership & Patriotism Workshop which aimed to inculcate patriotism, national unity, and leadership among the youths, and encourage youths to enlist in the security forces.

They had also said they would work to complement the government’s NS programme, but, Arshad said, the minister had picked on a comment made on the sidelines of its press conference by a member that the NS programme had failed to inculcate patriotism.

FMT had quoted Major (Rtd) Ismail Jr Feisol as saying: “All these institutions try to do military-related things, but they don’t have the experience. With due respect, NS has failed to instil (patriotism) in our youth.”

Arshad came to the defence of Ismail, saying:“Even though it was a sideline comment made by our member, we stand by his comment.”

Laying out the objective of the NS programme, launched in 2004 and on which RM7.4 billion had been spent, the former general challenged Hishammuddin to ‘honestly’ say the objectives had been achieved, or even partly achieved.

“If so, why are we seeing politicians spewing so much hate speeches? Why do individuals, whose acts and conduct display bigotry, hatred, and insidious divisive intent, receive tacit approval from those in authority?”

He asked if inter-racial disharmony among university students in campuses was now a phenomena of the past or whether youths stood up to offer their seats to women and elderly on public transport or whether the rivers, parks and streets were clean. He also asked about the number of cases of deaths and serious injuries that have occurred during NS training.

These he said, were enough to show how the NS programme had fared, “without having to ponder over critics’ accusation that the programme was a ‘money-making scheme’.”

Patriot, Arshad said, took no pride in pointing out the negativities of Malaysians.

“As men in uniform once, we live by the motto – there are no bad soldiers, only bad officers (leaders). Likewise, any shortcoming in the outcome of the NS programme, the fault lies not in youths and the trainees, but the national leaders. The minister of defence will have to take responsibility.

“We would like to politely remind the public, and especially our national leaders, to never ever doubt our loyalty and patriotism to our king and country. No groups or individuals can claim to understand and feel patriotism better than we do. What we have gone through during our era was wartime soldiering, unlike now.

“We lived a life deprived of much individual liberties, and an abnormal family life. We risked our lives and risked being maimed by booby traps. Some of us were injured in combat duties. Some of us received gallantry awards. Therefore, when we speak about patriotism, we speak from our hearts.

“In addition, never imply or insinuate that we Patriots apply ‘politics of hatred’. In our 35 media statements, never had we once instigated hatred among others. Our comments and criticisms have been based on issues. We encouraged and continue to campaign for national unity, besides asking for better welfare for our veterans and retired police personnel,” the retired general added.