Armed Forces not UMNO's political playfield

Er Teck Hwa, Bakri MP

Press statement by Bakri member of parliament, Er Teck Hwa According to a report dated 10 December 2011, a pro UMNO blogger called Papagomo, was at the same place where Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and his two deputies, P. Ramasamy and Mansor Othman were, when they had access to the KD Tun Razak Scorpene submarine. Papagomo portraited in his blog negatively that Lim Guan Eng had a bout of sea-sickness while inside the submarine. Besides that, a reporter at the scene at the material time there was another pro-UMNO blogger, named “Big Dog”, (Zakir Mohammed), was also there. According to a photo of Malaysiakini, apparently his presence was effected by being flown to Langkawi Airport in a military helicopter.Defence Minister, Zahid Hamidi, denied that no blogger was allowed into the submarine at the time of Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng’s visit to the vessel. Innitially, the BN government intented to invite the Chief Minister from the PR state to witness this sea-trial, in order to prove incorrect, the current rumour that the submarine was not able to submerge. But the whole event had back-fired. That reflect ted the ignorance of the Minister towards national security. Not only that, he also did not understand the concept of proper process of good administration. During the middle of 2009, the first submarine, KD Tengku Abdul Rahman, was built and piloted to Malaysia. Ahmad Zahid offered all the MP’s from Dewan Rakyat during the 3rd session of Parliament to LIMA show to visit the interior of the submarine. Among all the opposition MP’s, only Bagan Serai MP, Mohsin Fadzil Samsuri, and me participated in this event. On 4th December 2009, MINDEF arranged an air craft at Subang Airport and brought us straight away to Pulau Langkawi. When we arrived at the Pulau Langkawi LIMA Air Show, Ahmad Zahid was there to receive us. And MINDEF also arranged some meals for us and also scheduled at 3’clock for us to enter the submarine. There were many invited guests, so all of us had to wait at the dock. Because of the space constraint inside the submarine, each one of us visitors had to wait for our turn. Tun Dr Mahathir was also there as well. As a ex-Prime Minister he was given the privilege to enter the submarine first. But there was a person in the midst of the crowd there, who attracted my attention. He is Vincent Tan. When Vincent Tan followed behind Dr Mahathir to go inside the submarine, I could not help but think of why Vincent Tan being an ordinary businessman, and neither being a government officer nor a people’s representative was being allowed to go inside a military vessel. Dr Mahathir’s presence was proper and correct because he was a nation builder, a contributor to the nation's progress and held the longest term of premiership. Is Vincent Tan a submarine specialist? Why is it a civilian like him was allowed to enter a submarine? The same happened again after two years. As a Defence Minister, he seems not to be aware of who is being allowed into the submarine. Nevertheless, a civilian had gone inside the submarine, taken photographs and released them into the internet. Ahmad Zaki had the cheek to say that no blogger was allowed into the submarine. Besides that, Papagomo is arrogant in his blog by saying that he can tell the reader only something.  The rest are all strategical secret. Does this imply that a civilian is allowed to attend functions where he or she is exposed to military intelligence? And shamelessly he tells the whole world that he knows some military intelligence but he is not going to tell. Isn’t this a threat to national security? How does MINDEF ensure that the blogger does not sell the intelligence to spy organization in other countries? Ahmad Zaid, a Defense Minister who represents the government must understand that simply letting a civilian accessing a military facility, is considered a very serious occurrence. Two years ago that was Vincent Tan and two year later there is Papagomo and “Big Dog”. Since when a military facility has become BN’s political playfield? Ahmad Zaid must understand as a Defence Minister, his responsibility is to represent a Federal government elected by people to manage and coordinate ATM. And the Chief of Defence Force of ATM is General Azizan Arrifin. Dragging political struggles into the armed forces will destroy the country’s democracy system. During the time of Nazi Germeny, Wermacht (German Armed Forces) and Schutzstaffel (SS) were separate entities. That is why when General Walther Wenck was defeated in the Battle of Berlin, Hitler gave the order not to retreat but Walther Wenck did not obey this order.  Instead of that Wermacht followed General Wenck to surrender to the alliance.  Wehrmacht‘s loyalty was to the Chief of the Defence Force under the Administration and not political party. Thus, because of this, 3 million Wehrmacht were prevented from being slaughtered by the Alliance. The above is a good example of separation between party and country. MINDEF managed by Ahmad Zahid intends to put the interest of political party on top of national security. He lets ordinary civilians who have relationship with political interests to have access to military facilities. He just pretends not to know. Based on this reason, Ahmad Zahid has proven he is incapable of Administrative Management. Based on the seriousness of this matter, the Cabinet should insist that he should step Down. Do not let politics tarnish the good image of ATM.