More UMS students joining Civil Defence Force
KOTA KINABALU: More youths have started to show an interest in the Students Civil Defence (Sispa) Corps, a uniformed unit course under the flagship of the Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM).
This is evident as the number of requests to join the initiative has been increasing, particularly in Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).
Currently, each higher learning institution (IPT) is only allowed to have two platoons. One platoon will have 30 members, which means that one IPT is only allowed to have 60 members.
“If the IPT wishes to add more members, they themselves would have to bear the extra costs (such as uniforms),” Operations Deputy Chief Commissioner (PA) Roslan Wahab told reporters when met at the Commissioning Ceremony of the Sispa UMS members at UMS Peak yesterday.
Although more and more students have started to show interest in the Sispa programme, financing it might be an issue for some universities.
However, Roslan stressed that the APM would try to assist the universities as much as they can.
Currently, two IPTs in Sabah are enrolled in the Sispa programme, namely UMS and Polytechnic Kota Kinabalu (PKK).
In line with this, Roslan revealed that APM was currently looking into bringing the Sispa programme to Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Sabah, considering the fact that most of the other UiTM branches in Peninsular Malaysia were enrolled in the programme.
When asked whether the students would be appointed as full-fledged APM members, Roslan said this would depend on the availability of posts.
He explained that the newly-commissioned Sispa members would work as volunteers for APM, which means that they can join any APM related operations or activities.
Meanwhile, the ceremony witnessed the commissioning of 57 members of Sispa UMS.
The main aim of the ceremony was to acknowledge all the officers, who had undergone training for six semesters to become second lieutenants, Roslan said.
“This means that their quality, qualification and ability are on par with the officers that we had trained in Peninsular Malaysia,” he added.
Roslan said he was pleased to see that the students themselves had put in most of the work to ensure the success of the ceremony, a skill that would be useful when they conduct their own operations or training in the future.
It is understood that the APM has merely assisted the students in terms of logistics support and additional advice.
Also present was UMS deputy vice chancellor (research and innovation) Professor Dr Shahril Yusof.