No discrepancy in purchase of navy vessels? Prove it!

Defense minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said there was no financial discrepancy or irregularities in the purchase of six navy patrol ships by the government for RM9.0 billion.

As such, he said, there was no need for Parliament to probe the purchase of the vessels as requested by the opposition. Ahmad Zahid who is also the Umno vice-president said proper procedures were followed in procuring the vessels and it was within the stipulated budget of the ministry.

"Everything was done orderly. The need for Parliament (to probe) does not arise… there is no discrepancy here", says the doubtful doctorate holder again.

If there are really no discrepancies, can the defense minister prove it and make public all the transaction which led to the purchase of the six naval boats. Only then, you will be able to prove the purchase of these naval boats are clean.

Bringing in the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) to be associated with your statement serve nothing as there are a lots of corruptions being reported for years which also involved billions of Ringgit, but in majority of the cases or scandals, the MACC had proven to be a failure in getting all those involved to be charged in the court of law.

And we are very certain that you will then bring in the Official Secrets Act (OSA) as a threat and preventive measure, should anyone or the opposition parliamentarians were to go deeper into this case.

Defense details are very often classified as national secret and its transactions are not made public citing national security reasons which had further encourage widespread corruption and mismanagement of public funds.

First of all, are we at war, or is our country being under threat from an enemy? Our country, Malaysia is not at par with any nations with gigantic military might like US, Russia, China, Canada, England or France. Therefore, no one is interested in getting nor spying at our military technologies nor any other facilities because our country do not even have any in the first place.

We are not asking you to make public of your military strengths, arsenals or any other weaponry systems which certainly would expose our nation's security.

What you should make public is the "business" part of the defense deals, transaction, the procurement, accounting procedures and payment aspects, are there any agents involved and who are they? How much are they being paid for? The suppliers, spare parts, are they genuine dealers and finally is the public fund being properly used for all these transactions and a lot more.

Therefore, the right avenue to probe into such transactions and dealings which involve the defense and security expenditures should be the parliament, and in order to scrutinize its details and further analyze its various finance and procurement in practical, a permanent parliamentary select committee should be put in place for the said purpose.

Look, even in the US, there are even permanent congressional committee on defense and the senate committee on defense to handle and scrutinize their annual defense and security budgets. All parties involve, from the Secretary of Defense, the Undersecretary, the Chairman of Joint Chiefs, the Chief of the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Marines, the defense suppliers, even the agents and individuals with specific roles were regularly called in to testify on how these budgets are being spent and how.

This is what we call transparency and accountability. With these two criteria in place only then there will be competency in all aspects of practice.

So, please do not treat our people like fools. We know how to differentiate all these issues at large. You are the one who is burying your head into the sand like an ostrich.