Military Skill And Training In Soldier’s Bravery

: The Malaysian Armed Forces is responsible for producing hundreds of thousands of trained military personnel. This is because the Malaysian Armed Forces has carried out various military exercises to expose the role of its personnel and provide awareness of the importance of military service in the context of national defense and security. Bravery is a leading to matters related to a mentally and physically strong fighting spirit despite facing high risks. Then, bravery is one of the most important qualities that should have among the soldier personnel. The need to manage training efficiently and effectively is a challenge that needs to be managed and addressed properly, systematically and systematically. Technological advances that are constantly changing with the current circulation require a system of training that is effective enough to help the Government produce personnel that are feared by the enemy. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship of the military skill and military training with the soldier bravery among Malaysian Armed Forces in IJED, Port Dickson, KDSI, Lumut Perak and KTU, Alor Setar Kedah. Quantitative research methods of the correlational research design were conducted using questionnaires with 249 respondents from the Malaysian Armed Forces using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 25.0 and Smart PLS 3.3.2. The results showed that there is a relationship between the military skill and military training with the soldier bravery. The findings confirmed that military skill and military training does act as an important determinant in the relationship of soldier’s bravery. The organization should define military skill and military training for training programs and specify components or outcomes to target in order to better understand soldier’s bravery. This study confirmed that the ability of commanding officers to conduct training appropriately military mind elements military skill and military training has increased their soldier’s bravery in operations.


Introduction
Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) is the backbone of security for Malaysia, providing protection from any external threat by air, sea or land.MAF strategic focus on the National Defense Plan that outlines three main bases which refers to national strategic importance, the principles of defense and the concept of defense (NDP, 2004).The Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) consist of three branches Malaysian Army, Royal Malaysian Navy and Royal Malaysian Air Forces.MAF active personnel is 110,000 and the reservist is 310,000 personnel.They were commissioned into the trades from several schemes, namely, cadet officers, graduate officers, cadets who graduated from the Malaysian Defense University and also professional duty officers.The other ranks are not commissioned.The rank of Corporal (or equivalent) is known as a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) and the ranks of Sergeant and above (or equivalent), are known as Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (SNCO).In the work ethic of the military personnel, it shows the nature of bravery is about the leading to matters related to a mentally and physically strong fighting spirit despite facing high risks (MAFHQ, 2021).
A soldier is a man or woman who selflessly devotes their life to ensure that all citizens of their country can sleep with peace of mind and live out day to day without fear.A soldier gives you your freedom, and asks nothing in return (Zulkifli Zainal Abidin, 2014).Training is very important in the Malaysian Armed Forces to maintain a high degree of efficiency and capability to form an army capable of operating in any conflict and capable of controlling national sovereignty in any operating environment and conditions.To ensure that the Malaysian Armed Forces is always ready at all times in the face of war, training to fight in total is a command function that needs to be given priority by all levels of government.MAF has developed a more integrated concept of education and training development where the two have been combined as one system.In this new concept, it is the hope of the MAF that its personnel who will lead the MAF in the future will be composed of competent officers and able to perform their duties more effectively, efficiently and with quality.Furthermore, the objectives of these study are conducted to measure relationships between military skill and soldier bravery and relationship between training and soldier bravery.

Literature Review
Bravery is a virtue for the power of anger, because indeed the power of anger is really real, but with the power of his spirit he remains subject to the educated mind with religious education in the action of forward and backward.That bravery is an act halfway between the two humiliations that surround it, namely transgression and cowardice.Exceeding the limit (altahawur) is an act of exceeding balance, a human being dares to move forward in the face of dangerous things according to the judgment of reason should not progress.Bravery is an action that is at the level of deficiency, that is, a behavior that brings a lack of anger according to the measure that must be, so as to even deviate the action to progress, which must be progress.When the praiseworthy morals have been achieved, then good actions will grow, for example, when bravery has been achieved, then the bravery to move forward will grow in accordance with the provisions that have been set.
According to the Filjak & Pavlina, (2000) the military itself is interested in understanding the essence of bravery, and the ways to reinforce it.Suggestions concerning bravery as a psychological notion have been sought from psychologists.However, efforts towards an in-depth research into bravery revealed serious reference void in the field, unlike other (military) psychological concepts e.g.fear, combat stress, leadership.Furthermore, motivated by training needs also, set to furnish notions and theories on factors favoring bravery to respond to the hard task of exploring soldier bravery.The factors have been mapped into a model of soldier bravery shown in the Figure 1.Only the principal sources for the model will be listed here.This can be exemplified by advancing to the battlefield to subdue the annoying arrogance of infidels on the one hand, but on the other hand love among fellow Muslims.The person who has been able to apply the above values, then he should maintain it, on the other hand for the person who has not been able to achieve it he should pay attention to his personal character, if his character tends to flawed nature such as cowardice, then he should train himself to arouse bravery, so that bravery became his habit, his character and character, and in the next stage he would become a brave man and even a brave character.
Bravery can have a positive connotation as well as a negative connotation.In MAF, young personnel are often seen bravery to do things that used to be very feared.The bravery that is demanded by religion (Islam) is the bravery that has a positive connotation, that is, the bravery to defend the truth.In the context of Islam, bravery is often referred to as syaja'ah.The opponent of the nature of syaja'ah.Brave is a person who dares to defend the truth at any risk and is afraid to do wrong.On the other hand, a coward is a person who is afraid to defend the truth.The jargon we often hear, "Brave because it's right and afraid because it's wrong."Related to the nature of bravery, the Prophet Muhammad saw. said in one of his hadiths, "It is not called a brave person who is strong in wrestling, in fact the brave is a person who is able to control himself in times of anger."(Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim).
From this hadith, it turns out that the measure of bravery or not a person cannot be seen in terms of physical exercise, but in terms of mental exercise.People who have a strong physique, such as bodybuilders, cannot be said to be brave.Many physically strong people do not have this syaja'ah nature.For bravery is not determined from there, but from the strength of his soul which always moves him to do good and defend the truth Nabi Muhammad S.A.W. is an example for us in all things, including in the matter of bravery.Of the Sirah nabawiyah that we know about him, there is no historian who does not praise his bravery.This shows that the Prophet Nabi Muhammad S.A.W was a true bravery who always upheld the truth and eradicated falsehood, even though the risks he took were great.The Prophet was repeatedly insulted, reviled, and even hurt by the disbelievers of Quraysh, from the common people to his figures.However, the Prophet Nabi Muhammad S.A.W. remained true to the truth and he dared to defend it without fear of the risks he would receive.The other prophets of Allah were also brave in preaching the religion of Allah, despite having to face the enemies of the infidels.Because of the bravery of the Prophets of Allah S.W.T, they succeeded in their preaching.
Forms of bravery is very much needed by every Muslim to provide for his daily life.The bravery we need in life there are several kinds, among them are: First, bravery in facing the enemy in the war in the way of Allah S.W.T (jihad fi sabilillah).Every Muslim must have the bravery to fight to uphold the truth and the religion of Islam.Allah curses the Muslims who run away from the battlefield for fear of death.On the other hand, Allah gives a high position to those who fall on the battlefield facing the enemies of Islam (martyrdom).So, fighting for Muslims will always bring benefits, whether winning or losing (dying).If he wins, he will get honor and if he loses or dies, he will be a martyr whose reward is heaven.Therefore, running away from legal warfare is haraam and will be cursed by Allah S.W.T.In the Qur'an surah al-Anfal Allah S.W.T.He said: "O you who believe, when you meet those who disbelieve who are attacking you, then do not turn your backs on them.Whoever turns his back on them at that time, except to turn to war or to join another army, he will surely return with wrath from Allah, and his abode is Hell.And it is a very bad place to return." (QS.Al-Anfal [8]: [15][16]. According to Zulkifli Zainal Abidin (2014), developing future soldiers will require rebalancing the combination of training, education, and experience the Army currently uses.Training develops skills, courtesy, appearance and techniques through practice and observation that contribute to soldiers' bravery.A high state of training is the best welfare of the troops; training saves lives in combat.In battle, the habits and discipline that have been instilled in training pay off first, because men in combat will do instinctively what they have been in the habit of doing in training; and second, because only the extra drive of discipline will enable the soldier to overcome the fear that all men experience in battle.
Bravery always implies exposure to danger for others' benefit or scarifying for a common goal, it is fostered by strong cohesion too.Furthermore, bravery implies military effectiveness, so heroic individuals are at the same time skilled combatants too (Filjak & Pavlina, 2000).Tong (2019) wrote that the truth is, it is costly to train a soldier, and rightly so as wars are increasingly sophisticated and requires highly skilled and smart soldiers.Each time we deploy them, we need to think of them as a special and highly skilled group and not as laborers at our free disposal.Acts of bravery are anticipable in extraordinary situations by trained soldiers exhorted by togetherness (Filjak & Pavlina, 2000).Mindset is accepting the situation and being determined to make the best out of it.Training and mindset make some soldiers brave.The bravest soldiers are those, who don't fight in wars but for peace.Militaries should be all about peace, not war.The famous British leader, Sir Winston Churchill once said that bravery is the ability to stand up and voice an opinion even bravery is also required to sit still and listen (Olsthoorn, 2014).
According to the Johansen et al, (2014) bravery is a term used to define the type of attitude or feeling a person may have in a situation of possible danger or fear.It is a strength that one can find in bold or intrepid reactions in situations where fear, danger, panic is present.Usually, feelings of bravery are used for a number of endless situations and even the term can be used figuratively or metaphorically to refer to situations where there is no real danger but where the person should be dare to do something.
According to Filjak & Pavlina (2000), bravery is a phenomenon mostly associated with warfare and the military.Acts of bravery are admired and commended by the military.Then, training, knowledge, and confidence, there is one more thing that makes a soldier brave, bravery is to lack fear.What makes a soldier brave?A mixture of things: Training, so that when the stressful moment comes, the soldier's response is automatic and appropriate; Knowledge, the ability to rapidly analyse a situation or recognize its nature, to see an opportunity or need, and to decide to act; and confidence in himself and his training.
In addition, Yamamoto (2016) mentioned, the natural enemy to bravery is not fear; it is self-doubt.To eliminate self-doubt is to begin to teach bravery.To eliminate self-doubt, we train.We train to build competence, and competence builds confidence, and confidence builds bravery.bravery is developed in training where it is safe to succeed, and safe to drop.
According to Wansong (2018), he stated that the spiritual character of patriotism can be greatly strengthened and embodied in military training.The cultivation of patriotic character can enable students not only to pay attention to their own affairs in military training, but also to be concerned with the realization of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.Student can set up the spirit of patriotism and nationalism in military training and establish a sense of responsibility to consciously shoulder the historical mission entrusted by the times.The patriotism of family in one can be well reflected in college student military training activities.In the military activities, the cultivation of the quality of patriotism is the main way to cultivate the spirit of patriotism student, inspire the patriotism of college student.
According to Bespalova, (2018) the creative aspects of correctional officers' professional training, the focus on individual, self-related attitudes to the studied issues, career-related requirements, motives, interests, goals and aims, the role of career-related communication and active work in the formation of a serve as a theoretical basis for the professional formation of correctional officers.The concept of military officers' professional military skills improvement is based on the personal-active approach, which presupposes an interconnection of personal and social goals.In the modern world, we can hardly overestimate the role of the moral component of a personality engaged in extreme activities.
Concentrating on training is the highlight of military training in universities and the foundation for mastery of basic military theories and military skills.The officers' ability to adequately interpret phenomena in a given situation includes a variety of articulable and in articulable knowledge.The role experience plays when handling challenging situations, and how different kinds of knowledge are active in forming a professional military skill According to Mockenhaupt, (2012) emphasized that, we must train in peacetime because there is not time in war well-qualified soldiers, physically and mentally toughened by hard training, led by competent and caring leaders and dedicated to preserving the values they and their fellow countrymen live by, make the critical difference between a successful and unsuccessful Army.The more stress soldiers overcome in training, the less stress they will experience in combat.Training tasks that require moral and physical bravery teach soldiers to deal with fear and anxiety.Tough training teaches them to overcome those fears through their proficiency at a task, and through trust in the competency of others in the team.We train well on how to survive and win on the battlefield of the future.We had better train well or that battlefield will be in our own backyard.Furthermore, the literature has been used as foundation to develop a conceptual framework for this study as shown in Figure 2.

Military skill Soldier's bravery
Based on the framework, it can be hypothesized that: H1: The relationship between military skill and soldiers' bravery.H2: The relationship between military training and soldiers' bravery.

Methodology
A quantitative research method by using correlational research design was employed because it allowed the researchers to combine the training literature, the semi-structured interview and the actual survey as a main procedure to collect data for achieving the research objectives.This research design is appropriate to help the researchers in collecting accurate, less bias and high-quality data (Cresswell, 2012; Sekaran & Bougie, 2013).This study gathered data from the Malaysian Armed Forces personnel in IJED, Port Dickson, KDSI, Lumut Perak and KTU, Alor Setar Kedah.At the initial stage, a pilot study was conducted via a survey questionnaire with five experienced army officers served more than five years comprising a commanding officer, an operation officer, an intelligent officer, an administrative officer and a senior non-commission officer who had been involved in the management of the units.The information gathered from the army officers helped the researchers to develop the content and format of the survey questionnaire for the actual research.
The feedback from this interview method was used to understand the nature and characteristics of military skill and military training and soldier's bravery and the relationship between such variables in the context of this study.Hence, the pilot study was conducted to verify the content and format of the questionnaire for an actual study.Due to familiarity of the target respondents with the national language, i.e.Malay, a back-translation technique was employed to translate the content of survey questionnaire from English into Malay in order to enhance the validity and reliability of research findings (Cresswell, 2012; Sekaran, & Bougie, 2013).The information gathered from the personnel of Malaysian Armed Forces helped the researchers to develop the content and format of the survey questionnaire for the actual research.
The survey questionnaire has three major sections comprises of: 7 items of military skill, 6 items of military training and soldier's bravery had 7 items that were developed based on triangulation from interviews, research from scholar and little adapted from military mind scale Zulkifli Zainal Abidin (2014a).All items used in the questionnaires were measured using a 5-item scale ranging from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly agree" (5).Demographic variables were used as controlling variables because this study focused on military mind elements towards soldier's bravery.Demographic variables were used as controlling variables because this study focused on military skill and military training.
The researchers had obtained an official approval and received advice from the MAFHQ to conduct the study at approved unit in the IJED, Port Dickson, KDSI, Lumut Perak and KTU, Alor Setar Kedah.The targeted population for this study was the infantry and armoured unit.This commanding officer allowed the researchers to conduct this study, but the list of the soldiers was not provided to the researchers.Considering this situation, a convenient sampling technique was used to distribute the survey questionnaires to soldiers who served in IJED, Port Dickson, KDSI, Lumut Perak and KTU, Alor Setar Kedah.A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed.From the total number, 249 usable questionnaires were returned to the researchers, yielding 99.6 percent response rate.The survey questionnaires were answered by participants based on their consents and a voluntarily basis.The number of samples exceeds the minimum sample of 30 participants as required by probability sampling technique, showing that it may be analyzed using inferential statistics (Chua, 2006;Sekaran & Bougie, 2013).
The research statistical analysis was conducted using structural equation model generated by SmartPLS version 3.2.5 (Riggle et al., 2009;Hair et al., 2017).The procedure of analyzing data is: first, validity test was performed by the convergent and discriminant validity.Second, the reliability analysis was performed by Cronbach alpha and composite reliability.Third, the structural model is assessed by examining the path coefficients using standardized betas (β) and t statistics.In addition, R 2 is used as an indicator of the overall predictive strength of the model.The value of R 2 are considered as follows; 0.19 (weak), 0.33 (moderate) and 0.67 (substantial) (Chin, 1998;Henseler et al., 2009).

Results
In table 1 shows that the demographic profile of the respondents, according to the gender demography it shows that the most of the respondent who participates in this study is male, it is indicated that 85.1% (N=212) of the respondent and the female is about 14.9% (N=37) of the respondent.Then according to the racial demographic of the respondent, its shows that most of the respondent are Malays consist of 95.6% (N=238) of the respondent, Other race is 2.4% (N=6), Indian 1.2% (N=3) and Chinese race is about 0.8% (N=2).In addition, the demography respondent according to the marital status shows that the majority of the respondents is married consist of 62.7% (N=156), the respondent who is single is about 36.1% (N=90) of the respondent and the respondent who divorced is consist of 1.2% (N=3).In describing the demographics of the respondents regarding their age, the results of the study found that the respondent who age between 31 -40 years is the most, it is consist of 46.2% (N=115), the respondent who age between 21 -30 years is about 37.8% (N=94) of the respondent, then for the respondent who ages between 41 -50 years old is about 14.1% (N=35) of the respondent, and the respondent 51 years old and above is 1.6% (N=4) and lastly only 0.4% (N=1) of the respondent age below than 20 years.
Then discussing the academic level of the respondents, the results show that the most of the respondents have their qualification of SPM / STPM, which indicates 55.4% (N=138) of the respondents, then followed by Qualification of Degree indicates that 28.9% (N=72) of the respondents, for the Diploma and Master, the results show the 9.2% (N=23) and 6.4% (N=16) respectively.According to the services of the respondent, the results of this study shows that the majority of the respondent who services from the Malaysian army is 51.0%(N=127) of the respondent.Respondent from the Royal Malaysian Air Forces and Royal Malaysian Navy is 24.9% (N=62) and 24.1% (N=60) of the respondents, respectively.For the rank of the respondent, an Officer consists of 44.6% (N=111), and the other rank is 55.4% (N=138) of the respondent.For the length of the services, it shows that the majority of the respondent is has served from a range of 16 to 20 years is about 30.1% (N=75), and from a range of 11 -15 years is consist of 24.1% (N=60) of the respondent, followed by the respondent who served in their services for less than five years is about 19.7% (N=49), and the personnel who has served from the more than 21 years is consists of 14.9% (N=37) and lastly, personnel of served in their services for a range of 6 -10 years is 11.2% (N=28) of the respondents.The outcomes of CFA were shown in Tables 2. Table 2 shows that military skill, military training and soldier's bravery had the values of average variance extracted (AVE) larger than 0.5, indicating that they met the acceptable standard of convergent validity (Henseler et.al, 2009).Besides, the table shows that all constructs which had the diagonal values of √ AVE were greater than the squared correlation with other constructs in off diagonal, showing that all constructs met the acceptable standard of discriminant validity (Henseler et al., 2009).Figure 3 shows the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) test to confirm the reliability and validity of data.3 shows that all constructs loaded more strongly on their own constructs in the model, exceeding the specified minimum, 0.6, showing that the validity of measurement model met the criteria (Fornell & Larker, 1981;Chin, 1998;Gefen & Straub, 2005).Besides, the composite reliability and Cronbach's Alpha had values greater than 0.7, indicating that the instrument used in this study maintained high internal consistency ( 3 and Table 4 shows the outcomes of testing SmartPLS path model using bootstrapping procedure.The value of R 2 is used as an indicator of the overall predictive strength of the model.The value of R 2 is interpreted as follows: 0.19, weak, 0.33, moderate and 0.67, substantial (Chin, 1998;Hair et al., 2017;Henseler et al., 2009;Wetzels et al., 2009).In this model testing, the inclusion of military skill and military training, in the analysis had explained 60.3 percent of the variance in soldier's bravery.The results of SmartPLS path model analysis revealed four important findings, H1: military skill significantly correlated with soldiers' bravery.Then, H2: military training significantly correlated with soldiers' bravery.In overall, this result demonstrates that military skill and military training are an important determinant of soldier's bravery in the studied organization.Note: Significant at *t >1.96

Discussion
The findings confirmed that military skill and military training does act as an important determinant in the relationship of soldier's bravery.The organization should define military skill and military training for training programs and specify components or outcomes to target in order to better understand soldier's bravery.Definitions, models, frameworks, and outcomes should be explicitly defied in written policy.Military mind training and program must have a clear definition and set of outcomes or goals.Organizations must have a clear understanding of how they contribute to the whole, as well as to organizational structure, command, and authority.This study offers three important implications.In terms of theoretical contribution, the results of this study confirmed three important findings H1: military skill significantly correlated with soldiers' bravery and H2: military training significantly correlated with soldiers' bravery.This result is consistent with and has broadened studies by Zulkifli Zainal Abidin (2014).With regard to the robustness of research methodology, the survey questionnaire used in this study has satisfactorily met the validity and reliability criteria.This may lead to produced accurate and reliable research findings.With respect to a practical contribution, the findings of this study can be use as useful guidelines by commanding officers in particular to upgrade the expertise of their soldiers in coping with future challenging operations.Most of the soldiers believed that training of military is essential and needs to be properly invent to the respective soldiers in order to increase their bravery for future operations.

Conclusion
This study confirmed that the ability of commanding officers to conduct training appropriately military mind elements military skill and military training has increased their soldier's bravery in operations.The result is consistent with the military mind literature published.Thus, present research and practice within military mind elements such as military skill and military training.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Psychological Model of Soldier Bravery (Sources: Filjak & Pavlina, 2000) According to Zhao, (2005) training is classified as formal training and informal training According to him, informal training is training in the form of guidance based on the purpose of a training.He further stated that formal training refers to training which is necessary for survival and improvement of the organization while informal training is a desire for training which occurs without forming further action or purpose of the training.These two types of training can be further broken down into two forms of training namely theoretical and practical training or it is also called practical training.Theoretical training is in the form of learning whether it is implemented in the classroom or in other places while practical training is an extension of theoretical learning implemented previously.Most of these exercises are a follow -up to theoretical exercises and are put into practice.A theory lesson will only be able to identify its success or failure through practical training implemented.Both types of training are designed according to a specific period of time based on the syllabus or training program that has been set either short-term or long-term training.Training can be implemented in various forms of learning either through courses, seminars, workshops, lectures, talks and so on.Training in the form of courses and workshops can generally include theoretical and practical training.Theoretical training is more focused on seminars, lectures and talks.While practical training without theory is implemented through physical training, field training and so on In additions, individual training provides each officer and other rank with the knowledge, skills and attitudes required by each individual military task.While group training is divided into two, namely tactical collective training and equipment group training.This group training combines the knowledge, skills and attitudes of individuals acquired during individual training and is combined with all that is available to their Government to achieve the goals to the combined task for which they are accountable.

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: The relationship between military skill, military training, and soldier's bravery Military training

Table 1 :
Demographic profile

Table 2 :
The Results of Convergent and Discriminant Validity Analyses