Yes Prime Minister!

The PM dowsing the fire!

Jim Hacker is the fictionalised PM of England in the 80’s comedy series, Yes Prime Minister. Sir Humphrey Appleby is the cabinet secretary in that story.

As the story goes, the British PM visited the MINDEF then. He was received by the chief of armed forces of the UK, a sitting general.

Jim Hacker our PM, asked the general, where is the button. What button? asked the general. The button for me to press to launch our missiles against a Russian attack on England.

Oh. Replied the general. We have one here and the other in 10 Downing Street. Its just matter of you pressing the button and we launch the missiles. Jim Hacker was perturbed to discover he could launch a missile attack just by pressing the button. He was even more alarmed to discover the Russians have 300 warheads and Britain only 90.

Our PM resolved to correct the situation. How to increase the defense capability of Britain.

At Downing Street, he summoned the government’s military adviser to brief him. He realised that Britain’s missile defence is inadequate to defend against the might of the Russian missile machinery. He was weighing the option of buying new Trident missiles or increasing expenditure on conventional forces. The following discussion took place.

The adviser asked the PM, why do you need to buy missiles when you hardly used them?

The PM answered we need the missiles to act as deterrent.

Why buy, if you will never use them?

But the Russians wont know that I will not use them, retorted the PM.

So if the Russians know that you will not use them anyway, they will attack. You don’t know the Russians know that you will not use them.

Ok, the adviser went on. Picture this scenario. SALAMI TACTICS.

What Salami? asked the perplexed Jim Hacker.

The Russians will employ the salami tactics to attack Britain. Piece by piece. Because they know, you don’t know when to counter attack using missiles.

Suppose there is a riot in East Germany. The east Germans called in the Russians to help them quell the unrest. Do you attack? Of course not said Jim Hacker. Suppose now after crushing the riots, the red army stayed on to further assist the east Germans to keep piece. Do you attack? No said Hacker.

Suppose, the Russians invade France. Do you attack? No, said Hacker again. We only use our defence system when we ourselves are attacked.

Ok, suppose, the Russians deployed their ballistic missiles at Nice, across Dover. Is that time to attack?

It’s a question of when to retaliate. By the time you retaliate its too late as the Russians will already be in Piccadilly.

So you don’t know when to retaliate with missiles do you? So the missile system is useless.

It is better to beef up the conventional forces.

The fictional story is being played here in our backyard. Pak Lah is using the Salami tactics. Piece by piece. Until the Salami is completed.

Dato Najib is the big Russian army with an arsenal of firepower. Outright confrontation is futile and self defeating.

But what if Pak Lah were to dismantle the fire power piece by piece just like a salami?

1. First by inducing Najib to accept a planned power transfer.
2. Second by transferring Najib out of the Defense ministry thereby cutting Najib from his power base.
3. Pak Lah still retains PMship.
4. Probably now, after this by instituting open tender system, cutting the power of the finance minster to do negotiated tenders.
5. By unravelling the dirt in MINDEF which would force Najib to be on the defensive.

Just by using conventional methods, PakLah will neutralise Najib.

Najib will realise that its already too late.

Just a story.