Patronage the practice in arms spending

By Patrick Lee

KUALA LUMPUR: A culture of patronage is being practised between the Defence Ministry, the armed forces and associated contractors, Suaram (Suara Rakyat Malaysia) director Kua Kia Soong said.

As a result, not many people are aware of the way money is being spent on the military, he added.

Kua was speaking at the launch of his book, “Questioning arms spending in Malaysia” at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall here today.

The book focuses on Malaysia's many military scandals. Fewer than 30 people attended the launch.

Kua said that he had been monitoring Malaysia's arms spending since the 1970s, and the book was a product of this research.

Terming it as the “first full exposé of the Malaysian military”, he said the book looked into Malaysia's progression into a military-industrial complex, a fact that not many people were aware of.

Kua also said that the book covered political leaders that claimed to be anti-Western on the outside, but were bedfellows when it came to arms dealing.

“Our local military complex is a lackey of the arms dealers in the West,” he said, citing the “Arms for Aid” scandal that occurred during the 1990s.

Kua added that when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister, defence spending skyrocketed, with some RM7.74 billion allocated for defence under the Fourth Malaysia Plan, or a RM6 billion increase from the Third Malaysia Plan.

According to Kua, the 10th Malaysia Plan saw RM23 billion allocated (or 10% of the plan) for defence.

The event also hosted a forum entitled “Towards Alternative Defence Policy in Culture of Peace”. Also present were Subang MP R Sivarasa, anti-nuclear war activist Ronald McCoy and a “Food not Bombs” activist known only as Yuuhan.

Despite the title, the forum hardly touched on an alternative Malaysian defence policy. Instead, the speakers said that Malaysia should focus on nation-building as opposed to hefty defence budgets.

Umno under attack

The ruling government, especially Umno leaders, also came under attack. McCoy said that Umno tended to pass laws that fulfilled its own agenda.

“I cannot see how we can change this (defence policy) without changing the government. There is no reform for the government,” he said.

Kua also questioned why the military had been dominated by one ethnic group when Malaysian soldiers came from different racial backgrounds.

“How many Umno leaders have died fighting against the Japanese or for the British (in the Emergency)?” he asked.

Even so, the forum appeared to focus especially on the Scorpene submarine scandal and on deceased Mongolian interpreter Altantuya Sharibuu.

“Two Special Forces officers have been charged with Altantuya's death, but now nobody is the wiser. What about the motives (behind the murder)? These are questions that have to be answered,” Kua said.

On submarines, he said, “We need at least 10 submarines to cover all of Malaysia's waters in the east and west.”

He said that since the two Scorpenes cost about RM7 billion, he asked what kind of funds would be needed for 10 submarines.

McCoy also said that Malaysia did not face external threats as other countries did.

"We really don't have any external enemies or threats, but we have a lot of internal problems, and I think this is what we should be focusing on," he said, adding that China was not a threat to global security.

'Paper tigers'

The forum also looked into Asean's role in tackling arms spending. However, Kua was sceptical on the will of Asean's political leaders.

He said that many of them were in fact “paper tigers”, and would not change their stance on arms spending, even if they were against it on the outset.

He also said that when it came to military might, Malaysia didn't stand a chance against its immediate neighbours. “Among the four countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia), we don't stand a chance when it comes to defence,” Kua said.

"Many countries toned down their arms spending after the end of the Cold War. But in Asean, arms spending has gone up by 10% since the Cold War," he said, adding that it was strange for Asean to involve itself in a “mad” arms race.

Sivarasa admitted that Pakatan Rakyat had yet to come up with an alternative defence policy. However, he said that the coalition had introduced a Common Policy Framework that he claimed had addressed core values in the country's defence.

He also said that Malaysia's military needed to adopt a defensive strategy as opposed to its currently offensive approach.

Nevertheless, he said that Parliament should oversee military spending. - FMT