Why are soldiers transported to a conflict site using commercial passenger planes?
The question is at the centre of a raging debate among the Malaysian online community, following a Twitter post by Air Asia founder and group CEO Tony Fernandes showing military personnel preparing to board an Air Asia plane .
"Flights are rearranged today as we are helping the army transfer staff to East Malaysia. Pls be patient," the prominent tycoon twitted last night.
"As mentioned please be patient with some flight arrangements on flights as we are helping the army," he announced again.
Instead of generating praise for helping the army, Fernandes's posting only gave way to more criticisms over the government's handling of the conflict in the east coast of Sabah, where armed foreign intruders have exchanged fire with security forces, resulting in at least seven policemen killed so far.
On several online fora, many netizens say they are dumbfounded why military planes were not mobilised instead. Some even wonder whether the planes have been grounded due to technical problems.
The Royal Malaysian Air Force's fleet of aircraft includes 16 C-130 Hercules military transport planes meant to airlift large number of soldiers.
One blog however defended the move, saying it is one way of honouring members of the armed forces.
"The least we can do is give them nice chairs to sit on," it remarked, and posted pictures showing the interior of Hercules planes. According to the blogger, carrying military personnel using civilian aircraft was not out of the ordinary, and cited that the US army had also sent thousands of soldiers to Afghanistan on commercial flights.
Earlier, it was reported that members of the 21st Battalion Royal Malay Regiment in Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan took off from Kota Bharu's Sultan Ismail Petra Airport to serve as additional troops to monitor the situation in Lahad Datu.
-Harakahdaily
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