The People's Volunteer Corps ( ms, Jabatan Sukarelawan Malaysia), abbreviated RELA, officially the Malaysia Volunteers Corps Department, is a

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

civil volunteer corps formed by the

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n government. Their roles include: Helping to spread awareness of the government policies to the public; To assist other government agencies in carrying out duties upon request; To conduct socio-economical as well as community-based activities and; To develop oneself as a role model for the society through various trainings and courses. RELA has the 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 infor ...

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

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

Malaysian Army The Malaysian Army ( ms, Tentera Darat Malaysia; Jawi: تنترا دارت مليسيا) 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 t ...

as 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 ...

works if needed. On 17 March 2020,

Malaysian Government The Government of Malaysia, officially the Federal Government of Malaysia ( ms, Kerajaan Persekutuan Malaysia), is based in the Federal Territory of Putrajaya with the exception of the legislative branch, which is located in Kuala Lumpur. Malay ...

announced the RELA Corps will assist the

Royal Malaysian Police The Royal Malaysia Police (often abbreviated RMP) ( ms, Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM)), is a (primarily) uniformed national and federal police force in Malaysia. The force is a centralised organisation. Its headquarters are located at Bukit Ama ...

and Malaysian Armed Forces to enforce the

Movement Control Order Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy F ...

until the end of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

RELA officers in Kuching, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia

History

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 w ...

that was established when the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

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

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

fighters, and now 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

Criticism

The

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

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