The Panglima Angkatan Tentera (PAT; transl. Chief of Armed Forces) was formerly known as Ketua Turus Angkatan Tentera (KTAT; transl. Head of Armed Forces) until in the early 1980s.[3]
The United Kingdom governed Malaysia in its pre-independence days. Most of its military forces at the time were from Commonwealth nations. There were local military forces such as the Penang and Province Wellesley Volunteer Corps, and other similar units created in Singapore and the other Malay States, however, they were regarded as a territorial army than a federal army.[5]
The Federal Council of the Federated Malay States passed the Malay Regiment Bill on 23 January 1933. With that, the first local federal military force, the Malay Regiment (now known as the Royal Malay Regiment) formed.[6]
After World War II, with the Malayan Emergency conflict emerges, the Malay Regiment's size increased to seven battalions. One multiracial regiment and one armoured vehicle squadron were also formed. With this, the regiments merged into one single federal army, thus forming the Malayan Federation Army, the Malaysian Army predecessor. At that time, even with combinations with other branches (Navy and Air Force), the Malayan Armed Forces were relatively small. As the chief of the biggest branch of the armed forces, the Chief of Army was at the same time elected as the chief of the entire armed forces.[6]
With Malaysia's formation on 16 September 1963, North Borneo (now known as Sabah), Crown Colony of Sarawak (now known as Sarawak) and Singapore military forces merged with the Malayan Armed Forces into one single force. Because of this, the Chief of Armed Forces separated from the Chief of Army for ease of administration of the larger army.[6]
List of Chief of Defence Forces
Until 2023, 22 people had appointed as the Chief of Defence Forces, including two from Royal Malaysian Air Forces and one from Royal Malaysian Navy.[3][7]
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
