AFM's stretched security efforts

The Armed Forces of Malta's contribution to the forthcoming Commonwealth summit will no doubt stretch its security apparatus beyond anything it has ever seen before. The last major security operation the AFM found themselves actively involved in was the Bush-Gorbachev summit, when most of the Maltese troops' involvement was focused around airport security, a perimeter cordon around the summit venue on-board the berthed Slava in the Freeport area, and fixed point security at the Palace and Auberge de Castille in Valletta, apart from the customary ceremonial guards of honour upon the arrival of the two leaders.

This time round, the AFM has focused its efforts again on airport security but has the added weight of EOD screening and seaborne perimeter cordoning around the Radisson Golden Sands Resort in Ghajn Tuffieha. No big military task by normal standards hadn't the AFM been burdened with the responsibility of 922 detained illegal immigrants (The Times, August 20). The recent secondment of some 118 soldiers and a small cadre of officers to administer these detainees has not helped the adequate required projected manning of posts the AFM is expecting to operate during the CHOGM.

Only the AFM's Commander, Brigadier Carmel Vassallo, has voiced his concerns that any future landings of illegal immigrants might well prejudice the successful implementation of their security plans. One wonders whether the Commissioner of Police has similar limitations, or else it is the police corps that are calling the shots as the leading agency, yet keeping their cards close to their chest without the pre-event liaison with their Maltese military counterparts.

It was somewhat strange to see a Parliamentary Secretary at a press conference alongside the AFM Commander, merely to announce the reintroduction of open recruitment in the AFM ranks and the enlistment of officer-cadets. Has the government finally realised that the natural wastage of retiring AFM personnel and the outright clampdown on recruitment has only served to downsize to ridiculous levels the AFM's strength, when it should have a full establishment of 2,200 soldiers as publicised in the White Paper on the AFM's modernisation? With their mere 1,600 troops, minus 118 seconded for immigrant guarding, the armed forces will be stretched very thinly unless their role for the summit is not downsized to their current capabilities.

The government is kidding itself and the public that the AFM shall be able to recruit enough young folk to bolster its ranks: the pay is dismal, the promotion opportunities slow and pathetically unmapped by time, trade or educational qualification schedules, and the chances of training/deploying overseas (for active duty other than joint exercise training) always remote.

A shakedown of AFM headquarters is needed. Too many staff officers have clung to their appointments for too long or have progressed up the chain of command in the same field of specialisation, losing touch (if they ever had it at all) with the simple common soldier and his supervisors. Much of their representations cannot be made by the unit Commanding Officers and their staff, and without a union of sorts the welfare of those bearing the brunt on the frontline (like at sea or alongside some fenced compound) is ending up in tatters.

Enough of this political saving face in front of media cameras. It's high time our soldiers are shown some respect for the hardships they're unnecessarily put through, with decent remuneration and an overhaul of their promotion, trade and allowance systems.