Category FAQs Search : Rajang Security Command (RASCOM)
Question: Formation of RASCOM
Answer: In response to the deteriorating security situation in the Mid Rajang Basin, Rajang Security Command (RASCOM) was established on 26 March 1972. Exactly a month after Penghulu Imban was murdered. The office complex was located behind the Resident Office and the Police HQ alongside Island Road. It was a single storey wooden building, a former camp used by the Gurkha Battalion during the Confrontation of 1963 - 1967.
RASCOM was formed based on the Majlis Keselamatan Negara (MKN) Directive No 4. Its Area of Responsibility (AOR) encompassed the 3rd and the 6th Division. It combined the Military, Police and the Civilian Administration under one single command.
RASCOM covered the areas of Sibu, Kapit and Sarikei Divisions, a total area of 22,603 square miles and a total population of 969,909 which came directly under the administration of the Chief Minister, as the State Director of Operation.
The main objective of RASCOM was:
- To maintain law and order and to preserve public security
- To initiate measures aimed at mobilising people to support the government against the communist.
- Like Operation HAMMER in 1965, one of its primary aims was to deny the insurgents/ CTs from access to the local populace and to cut off food supply, medicine, and information.
The organizational structure of RASCOM had been refined with the concept of "Security and Development" (Keselamatan dan Pembangunan) KESBAN as one of its prime motives. The Headquarters was represented by all the Heads of Department respectively to provide quick "hands on" solutions to the problems besetting RASCOM.
(Source: The Murder of Penghulu Imban - Book, 13 Sep 2021)