Traitorous politicians worse than communist infiltrators of bygone times By Lt Col Hardial Singh (Rtd)

As we countdown to the polls come 19 November, we veterans want to share our concerns and educate the younger generation who may not be familiar with the price we and good governance paid for carving a peaceful nation.

The Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) and the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) handed over a peaceful country to the government in 1989. There was so much of destruction as dozens of MAF & RMP personnel sacrificed their lives and limbs leading to the surrender of the Parti Kommunis Malaya (PKM) ultimately.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force and the Army lost a lot of equipment during the insurgency as the PKM wreaked havoc. The RMP were not speared either. Helicopters were shot at; trucks and armoured vehicles were blasted and destroyed; and even the National Monument was damaged.

Our country lost millions of ringgit worth of defence equipment then. But it was lost in
defending our nation from our enemy. The purpose of buying and using the defence equipment was to protect the sovereignty of the country and its population – to win peace and stability.

However, today we have governments and its minister who are causing serious damage to our nation’s inventory of defence equipment and arsenal albeit in a different way. The damage is by way of total disappearance of paid for inventories. This is worst then the damage caused by the Communist during the insurgency. 

These past post-insurgency decades, millions of substandard items and equipment had been dished out to the Malaysian Armed Forces. The list will be too long to mention here. All those involved will know who they are.

To say the least, they have compromised the security of our nation. They have through their failures and questionable actions placed the lives of our security forces at risk that cannot be justified. And by compromising the strength and capability of our defence they have placed the lives of every Malaysian at risk ultimately.

Hence all those who had failed in their call of duty vis-à-vis the non-delivery of essential defence inventories to the tune of billions of ringgit including even having had a hand in the securing of related equipment that fall short of standards should be deemed as traitors. 

Who does not know that ships and helicopters were bought but not delivered?

We veterans who have fought the communists then will tell you without mincing our words and without exaggeration that should there be any foreign infiltration now and loss of lives, those who had a hand in the corruption and scandals relating to defence equipment purchases will have blood on their hands.

How are we soldiers who are in service supposed to protect our beloved nation when the fighting tools are not there and what is given to us is of questionable quality? Pray tell us.

As we march to the polls therefore there is every reason to feel angry and betrayed. There is no excuse, no explanation and certainly no justification whatsoever when those in power failed an entire nation in this regard. Besides robbing the country they have traitorously left our security forces in a vulnerable corner and ill equipped the forces to fight and defend our nation.

Think wisely when you vote on the 19th of November. You and I know who are the traitors who should not be voted in, especially those who keep promising us "dalam Kajian".

Lt Col Hardial Singh Dhaliwal (Rtd)
Subang

 

My Comments : There is an "informal" ranking of Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers and of "chairmen" of GLCs, government agencies as such.  The ranking is very simple - what is the size of the Budget allocation for that Minister, Deputy Minister, 'chairman' etc. 

The bigger the Budget the bigger the "cable" the Minister / Deputy, chairman etc can pull. And usually the more powerful the Minister's own political standing (Top 5 Umno, BN component party boss) they will be appointed to the "bigger" Budget Ministries.

Or to Ministries with huge "approval" clout like the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of International Trade (MITI).   

Its all about how much money is involved aka Budget allocations or "peruntukkan".

For a long time the Ministry that received by far the biggest Budget allocations every year was the Ministry of Education. Why?

Well the focus has changed.

In the beginning the country was really focussed on making education a national agenda. We did not have even half the number of schools in the 1960s. So new schools were built everywhere. 

Then post NEP and post oil-money the focus changed. Political patronage became a necessary  avenue to channel Malaysia's new found oil wealth to the cronies and the supporters.

School building contracts were awarded (by the Minister) as political patronage to cronies and supporters (and political funders) to strengthen the Minister's own political base. So whether he knew anything about education or not, the Minister of Education was always a top-cat in Umno. 

The late Tan Sri Sanusi Junid once told me 'if you make it to deputy president (of UMNO) you can point at any Ministry and its yours (besides being DPM as well).

So to keep the money flowing to the Ministry of Education (for example) more and more schools, colleges, universities, new text books, new workbooks, more book printing contracts were dished out. Dollah Badawi even decided that (to boost a slow economy then) contracts will be awarded to build schools for children who had not yet been born. In Pahang there is a school in a kampong inside the jungle that was built for 800 students. The kampong only had 87 school age kids. Total population of the kampong was also around 800 people. 

So big Budget Ministers have strong cables.

I have said this before and I will say it again - there is a  "book publishing and book printing mafia" which even has an influence on the education policy of this country. Some may call it "lobbying".

Remember the switch to "teaching Science and Maths in English" just before Dr Mahathir retired in 2003? It was abolished TEN YEARS later in 2013. Many parents (especially Malays) were happy with the switch to English. All the Government universities immediately switched their science based courses to English. It was well received.  

But the 'book publishing' mafia was not as happy. Because they suffered an acute shortage of  English language expertise to write and publish books in English.  I think they won the day.  The book contracts are worth hundreds of millions or billions of Ringgit.  

So our loyal soldier Lt Col Hardial Singh (Rtd) has pointed out that our troops are being equipped with substandard weapons and munitions. May the skies and the earth and all that is between them keep our country safe from any harm from outside our borders.

The weapons may be substandard but let me assure you that we pay possibly twice or three times the market price for such weapons.  Those six missing ships were just one example. We paid billions but not one ship was delivered.

Remember those infantry fighting vehicles from some time ago. Again it was brought up in Parliament (by the Opposition) that we were overpaying for those vehicles. 

These purchases, procurements and contracts are just avenues to channel the country's oil wealth to the cronies and the well connected. 

So indeed the Ministry of Defence is a big Budget Ministry. You will not find your Ketua Bahagian Tepi Jalan being appointed Minister of Defense. The Minister of Defense will possibly be Top 5 UMNO as well. The big Budget helps him buy and sell political patronage. Which is quite halal in this country because there are no laws governing donations to political parties. 

Substandard or no, we the people still pay top class Rolls Royce prices. But we get Potong Harga vehicles and cars. 

More important than the security of the country, it is the money that has to flow. Our money.  This is the game that has been going on.