Student Life

Assalamu'alaikum readers.

For your information, all of the Wataniah juniors will be leaving Wataniah to join PALAPES Darat. So what is PALAPES Darat? And why are we leaving Wataniah? Let's answer one by one shall we.

PALAPES stands for Pasukan Latihan Pegawai Simpanan. The english version is ROTU which stands for Reserve Officers Training Unit. Darat is referring to the land Army. So me and my squad will be joining PALAPES Darat. So what's the difference between PALAPES and Wataniah? Wiki: Wataniah and PALAPES

In Wataniah, we are trained as Privates (Prebet). Privates are the lowest ranks of the miltary ranking structure. Some may also advance to be a Lance Corporal but usually that's the highest that u can get after finishing the 3 years doing Wataniah in IPTAs.

In PALAPES, we are trained to be Officers (Pegawai). An Officer is of a much higher rank than privates. In fact, it is even a higher level than Sergeants and Warrant Officers. Sergeants have to salute the Officers. After finishing 3 years in the PALAPES course, we will be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant (Leftenan Muda). It is the lowest rank in the Officers group. There are mass advantages of becoming an officer when u are in the working life. Wiki: Malaysian Army Rank Structure

So why are the juniors leaving Wataniah for PALAPES? It is simply because IIUM is slowly abolishing Wataniah from the university. The current standard for Uniform Bodies in IPTAs are PALAPES and SUKSIS (police cadet). Wataniah is not up to par comparing to the other uniform bodies. IIUM already have PALAPES Udara (Air ROTU) established 3 years ago and is doing fine training at the campus every week. So this year they are starting to establish PALAPES Darat. And my batch are the fortunate ones to be chosen for the 1st batch of PALAPES Darat!

So as u can see, joining PALAPES has a much bigger advantage than joining Wataniah. But a higher rank means harder and more intensive training! Wataniah in IIUM only has to train 10 hours every saturday, but for PALAPES, we have to train 10 hours every saturday and sunday! Furthermore, since IIUM is still new to PALAPES Darat, trainings still cannot be held within campus due to lack of trainers. Instead, every training will be held at University of Malaya (UM), Petaling Jaya. We will be borrowing their curriculum structure for PALAPES Darat. Training starts at 7am there so basically we have to depart from UIA around 6am every training weekend.



This is quite an enormous challenge for us students. We not only have to maintain our academic CGPA, but we also have to go training every weekends. So the only time to do our assignments, revisions and discussions are only during the weekdays after class hours. This is a very big dilemma for us students even though we've been told earlier about this. We were given a choice. Either we join PALAPES or we leave the uniform body. I think out of the 32 people in our squad, only one left. We were saddened that we lost one of our squad members but at the same time we respect his decision. He knows what's best for him. Some of our squad members are actually still very doubtful about their decisions. The main worry is how much is it going to affect our academics. Basically, time management and mental strength is the key to overcome these problems.

Entering PALAPES is a huge sacrifice made by students. Like i mentioned in one of my tweets, "Most people think that you need toughness, strength and muscle to join the army, but actually it's more to attitude, discipline and commitment." It is shown by the students that joined PALAPES Udara mostly have a low CGPA, but we try to not be like them. We have to change our perspective, behaviour and discipline from now on. No more DotA for me and especially no more procrastinating! Procrastination is one of the bad habits i want to abolish from myself by joining PALAPES. Procrastination of assignments is a definite no no. I will try my best to revise every weeknights.

Thank for reading readers. Pray for the success for us uniform bodies!