Armed forces gets new chief

Army assistant chief of staff for personnel forces Mohd Nizam Jaffar has been appointed as the 23rd armed forces chief effective today.

Nizam (above), 59, took over the position from Mohammad Ab Rahman, who completed his service today, at a handover ceremony officiated by Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin at Wisma Pertahanan in Kuala Lumpur.

Army chief Muhammad Hafizuddeain Jantan, navy chief Zulhelmy Ithnain and air force chief Mohd Asghar Khan Goriman Khan also attended the ceremony.

Nizam, who was also promoted to the rank of general at the ceremony, is an army officer who received his promotion to lieutenant general on Feb 23 last year and has served in many important positions, including as commandant of the National Defence College, the Malaysian Army Training and Doctrine Command training management director and commander of the 2nd Malaysian Army Infantry Brigade.

The Johor Bahru native began as a platoon leader in the 19th Royal Malay Regiment (Mechanised) and then was entrusted with the responsibilities of being the aide-de-camp to the army’s deputy chief from 1989 to 1990, then to the defence force chief (1990 to 1992) and to the 14th Yang di-Pertuan Agong (2011-2016).

Nizam is a graduate of the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, England and has taken up various career courses, including at the Junior Command and Staff College in Bangladesh, a Mid Career Management Course in Pakistan, at the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth in the United States as well as Le Collège Interarmées de Défense in France.

He also completed his studies at the National Defence College, the National Centre for Defence Studies, Putrajaya and was awarded the National Resilience College (NRC) Award by the NRC Directing Staff Council.

He also has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Nottingham and is a Fellow Scholar at Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia.

He made history as the first senior army officer to be selected to attend the Global Peace Operations Initiative Peace Support Operations Contingent Commander Course in Monterey, the US before being appointed as the Commander of the Malaysian Battalion 2 peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

- Bernama

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