The People's Volunteer Corps (), abbreviated RELA, officially the Malaysia Volunteers Corps Department, is a civil volunteer corps formed by the

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

n government. Their roles include: helping to spread awareness of government policies to the public; assisting other government agencies in carrying out duties; conducting local social and socio-economic activities; and developing

human capital Human capital or human assets is a concept used by economists to designate personal attributes considered useful in the production process. It encompasses employee knowledge, skills, know-how, good health, and education. Human capital has a subs ...

through trainings that are appropriate. RELA has limited authority to raid suspected streets or places, such as factories, restaurants or hotels, and may

interrogate Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful inform ...

detain Detention is the process whereby a state or private citizen holds a person by removing or restricting their freedom or liberty at that time. Detention can be due to (pending) criminal charges against the individual pursuant to a prosecution or ...

people who do not have travel documents, such as passports or work permits, on their person. They are also in charge of security, are absorbed into the

Malaysian Army The Malaysian Army (; Jawi alphabet, Jawi: ) is the land component of the Malaysian Armed Forces. Steeped in British Army traditions, the Malaysian Army does not carry the title ‘royal’ () as do the Royal Malaysian Navy and the Royal Malaysi ...

as minor support groups during times of war, and are tasked with

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

work if really needed. On 17 March 2020, the

Malaysian Government The Government of Malaysia, officially the Federal Government of Malaysia (; Jawi: ), is based in the Federal Territory of Putrajaya, with the exception of the legislative branch, which is located in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is a federation comp ...

announced that RELA would assist the

Royal Malaysian Police The Royal Malaysia Police (often abbreviated RMP) (; Jawi: ), is a (primarily) uniformed national and federal police force in Malaysia. The force is a centralised organisation, and its headquarters are located at Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur. The ...

and

Malaysian Armed Forces The Malaysian Armed Forces (: MAF; ; Jawi alphabet, Jawi: ), are the armed forces of Malaysia, consists of three branches; the Malaysian Army, Royal Malaysian Navy and the Royal Malaysian Air Force. The number of MAF active personnel is 113,000 ...

to enforce the

Movement Control Order The Movement Control Order (), commonly referred to as the MCO or ''PKP'', was a series of national quarantine and '' cordon sanitaire'' measures implemented by the federal government of Malaysia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The order ...

until the end of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

History

Putrajaya Malaysia Member-of-Malaysia-Peoples-Volunteer-Corps-04

The People's Volunteer Corps is closely related to the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting ...

that was established when the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War, was a guerrilla warfare, guerrilla war fought in Federation of Malaya, Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Arm ...

was declared in 1948, and was dissolved when the Emergency ended on 31 July 1960. Its original purpose was to oppose

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

fighters, and now acts against illegal immigrants. There are 2.8 million people in the corps, most of whom are untrained volunteers. In 2008, RELA was given charge of immigration detention centres.

Personnel

Strength

Current strength of RELA in terms of personnel as of 13 Nov 2017
Personnel

Ranks

Weapons & equipments

Weapons •

T-baton A baton (also truncheon, nightstick, billy club, billystick, cosh, ''lathi'', or simply stick) is a roughly cylindrical club made of wood, rubber, plastic, or metal. It is carried as a compliance tool and defensive weapon by law-enforcemen ...

Equipment •

Walkie-talkie A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver, HT, or handheld radio, is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer A ...

model

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

Kenwood Corporation is a Japanese brand of consumer electronics. Since October 2008, Kenwood has been owned by JVCKenwood as a result of a merger between Kenwood Corporation and JVC. Kenwood has manufactured electronic equipment such as AM/FM stereo receivers, ...

and Baofeng UV-5R

Criticism

The

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

has called for People's Volunteer Corps to be dissolved, accusing it of violating human rights, conducting illegal raids and extortions. According to the United Nations Human Development Report of 2009, "Migrant activists say that RELA volunteers have become vigilantes, planting evidence to justify arrests of migrants and using excessive force in their policing. The government has recently announced its intention to curb abuses and is currently looking into ways of improving RELA by providing training to its members."http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/269/hdr_2009_en_complete.pdf

References

External links

*
news about RELA in Aljazeera

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080320045508/http://www.mfasia.org/mfaStatements/F94-MalaysiaBaronRELA.html Malaysia Bar on RELA
UK Channel 4 - Malaysia: Refugees for Sale
{{authority control Federal ministries, departments and agencies of Malaysia Ministry of Home Affairs (Malaysia) 1972 establishments in Malaysia Government agencies established in 1972