Mat Sabu: Malaysian military weakest in Southeast Asia

PARLIAMENT | Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu admitted today that Malaysia ranked last in Southeast Asia in terms of military strength.

"In terms of the air force, navy, etc, we sit at the last place. Vietnam is far ahead of us and Indonesia is number one," he told the Dewan Rakyat during the minister's Question-and-Answer session.

Mohamad added that Malaysia was a top-ranking country in the 1970s and the current position was embarrassing.

"I will work hard to make Malaysia great again, to become number one again," he said.

He was responding to Danyal Balagopal Abdullah (Harapan-Port Dickson), who asked about the obstructions faced by the military forces, in terms of interference from the ministry and allocations.

Mohamad admitted that the armed forces are short on funding.

"For example, the Royal Malaysian Air Force requested for an allocation of RM1.8 billion but the government had only approved RM1.2 billion, 62 percent of what was requested," he said.

However, Mohamad added that blaming the previous administration would not solve anything.

"We are now the government so, we will try to address any shortcomings and not repeat mistakes made by the previous government.

"It is important that we move forward," he said.

[More to follow] -Mkini