Public Should View Positively Defence Procurements
Written by Writer on Thursday, November 13th, 2008
Public Should View Positively Defence Procurements
By Shahrullizan Rusli
SEREMBAN, Nov 13 (Bernama) — Since of late a number of procurement programmes to enhance the defence capabilities of the nation were viewed negatively by the general public as seen in the procurement of EC-725 Eurocopter and Scorpene submarines.
The public and the politicians questioned on the need to purchase weapons worth billions of ringgit and who are our real enemies.
Such reasoning may be due to the unfounded perception that Malaysia faces no real threats from outside and there are improprieties involved in the defence procurements.
Maybe many have forgotten about the confrontation that occurred more than 40 years ago, after independence in 1957, where a neighbouring nation declared confrontation with Malaya when the Federation of Malaysia was proposed.
THREATS CAN HAPPEN ANY TIME
The procurement of the defence assets are done based on the National Defence Policy (DPN) that allows the nation to consider a defensive or offensive approach in protecting its soverignty.
According to army commander General Tan Sri Muhammad Ismail Jamaluddin, the policy calls for the parties concerned to establish the Operational Concept (OC).
“OC is important as it reflects how the DPN is implemented, according to the needs when defending our national sovereignty within our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),” he said to the writer after an event here in Port Dickson recently.
The defence strategists will check the assets needed to overcome vulnerabilities when developing the national defence strategy, for example whether the nation has enough maritime assets to protect the EEZ, he said.
“This is where the strategists at the Armed Forces Command will seek ways to enhance the defence capabilities by looking into the needs, whether we need a warship, new planes, a bigger infantry and so on.
PRIORITY FOR ALL THREE DEFENCE BRANCHES
“During the Emergency days, the army was given priority as they needed the best armament to defeat the communists,” he said.
Today, in line with the present challenges, priority is given to the navy and air force but this doesn’t mean the army has been sidelined.
Muhammad Ismail said currently an asset that is lacking in protecting our sovereignty is the lack of Airborne Warning and Control Systems (Awacs) that would enable the defence forces to monitor more closely the nation’s airspace.
Malaysia has surface radar but the coverage is inadequate to detect aircraft violating our airspace, he added.
“We have to formulate a flexible programme as the government may not be able to develop a comprehensive defence programme in the short run, there are possibilities of postponing the procurement of assets for services with a smaller role in the National Defence Policy,” he said.
ATTITUDE OF MALAYSIANS DISHEARTENING
He said the attitude of some Malaysians and politicians were disappointing as they were unaware on the importance to develop the national defence capabilities.
“Each time a procurement is made, it is linked with corrupt practices. Many remain ignorant and this is obvious when they ask why buy fighter jets…who are our enemies, wouldn’t it be better to invest the money in infrastructure development and so on,” he said.
A survey conducted by Bernama on Internet chat rooms shows such negative perception on defence procurement is hardly evident on Indonesians or Singaporeans.
The Indonesians in fact regretted for their nation’s failure to develop its naval capabilities and instead allowed its neighbour Malaysia to “bully” the biggest Southeast Asian nation in the overlapping claim over Sipadan and the crisis over Ambalat sometime back.
Meanwhile the Singaporeans are extremely proud with their nation’s defence capabilities and this can be seen in sgforums.com especially in the opinion column “Militarynuts”.
– BERNAMA
