Dato' Mohamad Ariff bin Md Yusof was accorded the Old Putera (OP) of the Year Award at the 49th Old Putera Association’s (OPA) Annual Dinner on Friday, July 26, at a leading hotel in the Klang Valley. Mohamad Ariff, a 1965 intake of the Royal Military College (RMC), was honoured as the recipient of the RMC Alumni Association’s prestigious award. This award is the highest recognition given to deserving alumni of the RMC as a symbol of acknowledgement from the OPA to celebrate OPs who have achieved noteworthy level of prominence in their chosen professions and who have made significant contributions to the OPA, the RMC, fellow OPs and the nation throughout the years in the spirit of the RMC’s charter and its motto - "Serve To Lead".
Mohamad Ariff’s recognition is well-deserved. He is currently the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of the Parliament of Malaysia since 2018. Mohamad Ariff was born in Sungai Petani, Kedah in 1949. He graduated from the London School of Economics (LSE) with a Bachelor's degree in Law. Mohamad Ariff was appointed a Judicial Commissioner for the High Court of Malaya in 2008. He was the high court judge in 2009 and in 2012, he was elevated to the Court of Appeal.
The Annual Dinner of The Old Putera Association which is in its 49th edition, is an event organised and hosted yearly by the OPA to provide an avenue for former RMC students to rekindle old memories of their time at the college and to provide a platform for OPs to broaden their networking.
Dato' Mohamad Ariff bin Md Yusof (second from the left) was presented with the Old Putera (OP) of the Year Award by Baharudin Mahyuddin, the President of the Old Putera Association. Also on stage were KJ John and CK Chua
“The theme of this year’s dinner is ‘Remembering the Days’, which, in essence is to remember the good old days of their time as ‘Budak Boys’ at the Royal Military College”, said OP Mudzamir Ong, Organising Chairman of the Annual Dinner.
The theme was also to appreciate the history of RMC right from its inception as the Federation Military College (FMC) in Port Dickson, 1952 until it moved to Sungai Besi in 1961 and changed its name to the Royal Military College. Another notable public figure, Tan Sri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad attended the dinner representing the pioneer batches of the FMC students. The dinner was also a celebration of the 1979 intake to commemorate their fortieth anniversary of ‘Budak Boy Brotherhood’.
The Royal Military College is an all-boys military college established to groom young Malaysians to take their places as officers in the Malaysian Armed Forces, in the higher divisions of the public services and as leaders in the professional, commercial and industrial life of the country. The college was founded in 1952 by Tun Sir Gerald Walter Robert Templer, who was the Field Marshal of British Army and famously dubbed as the “Tiger of Malaya”.
-Malaysian Business-
