IS MALAYSIAN HAM RADIO IN TURMOIL  ?

Malaysian hams do not have one voice, one destination and ham-spiritLESS. Problems began when the old hams brought in the class B. It was during this time when piracy started in great numbers, rigs were stolen from factories and distributed. As it was told, to control lawlessness those who sat for RAE were passed. During RAE candidates copy answers like nobody's business. The motto was simple 'This is only a hobby. Why be so strict'.

When the population of the 9Ws increased , there emerged two  movements  The first was the movement of criticizing the old hams with various accusation,  from the ignorance of the old hams to their stupidity and the evil nature. Secondly among the 9Ws there were unhappiness due to the rising piracies. There were stories of fighting, and throwing insults on the air waves. Even before the birth of class B there were talks among the Malays that ham radio was controlled by the Chinese. The Malays must get together to end the Chinese domination. ASTRA was formed, originally to house the Malay hams though it later opened the memberships to the non-Malays.

In Kuala Lumpur a few old hams befriended some new hams, assist and help them in many ways. They expect the young blood to take over as guardian of Malaysian amateur radio. New hams were elected into MARTS, a long time radio society of Malaysia. MARTS, with the new committee members, were said to set it's own direction. It wanted to manage the affair of amateur radio including the RAE, setting questions and run the examination. It also refused to host a SEANET convention. Hence personality conflicts occur. There were embarrassing engagements between a 9W and a 9M doctor , and the committee members  against the old hams. This dragged on for years.

The only common factors among them was the fight to abolish CW. Even this carries different objectives.

Today ham radio is just like the dirty politic, of character attack and assassination. It is an arena for the battle of emotion and sentiment. There had been efforts to strike a fatal blow on MARTS. Arrogance and anger led to the police report to kill the society. A new name, MARL, emerge claiming that it represents the Malaysia Amateur Radio because of it's large membership. The attempt to oust MARTS continues.

While on the air, especially on 40 meter band Malaysian hams defy the authority by going on frequency above 7.1. Malaysian authority says above 7.1 the broadcasting stations are still in operation. The rebels defy because the Indonesians authority allows it. It added up to more turmoil because the authority does not take any action., nor issue any warning or reminder.

The selling of rigs goes like the selling of kacang puteh. That give ways for further abuse and insults, disturbances on the band and of piracies. Hams that are ideally supposed to be ethical have become rogue and rude. A few take another step to use the radio frequency for political purposes like the PERKASA members. Others want ham radio to do the police job.

With the multi-prong ambitions and objectives and the persistent conflicts Malaysian Ham Radio will not  be at peace.

04/04/2013