In parliament
I raised the matter about a white paper on last year’s Lahad Datu Incident. I asked
whether MINDEF will come out with a white paper on the incident. The minister
of defence gave me a written answer saying that since the matter is in the courts,
there will be no white paper forthcoming.
I hope that’s
temporary. Once the court finishes with the case on the mischief makers, the
MINDEF must come out with a white paper. If they don’t, how can our military
form any doctrine as to how to deal with future similar aggression?
The business
of coming out with a white paper must be top priority of the Chief of Armed
Forces. Why is he dragging his feet on this matter? I am told he has dismissed the
idea of coming out with a white paper. This is very not soldierly of him and begs the question is he capable to lead our military?
Even so, there
must be some internal report and analysis on the matter. As an MP concern with
the security of the nation as well as other MPs, we should be allowed to look
at the internal reports if there are any. This will allow us to gain a better
appreciation of the role of the military. We want to support our brave soldiers
and that is possible with a deeper appreciation and understanding. If the chief
of armed forces is a mercurial fellow branding anyone who questions the conduct
of the military as traitors, he is not conducting himself professionally.
As it is, I
am very surprised that he has acted more like a tactical commander over the Lahad
Datu incident rather than playing the role of a strategic commander. Why was he
at the scene of clashes in lahad datu when we have field commanders in Sabah? Isn’t
our First Division based in Sabah? A brigadier General is probably there commanding
the Sabah theatre.
In the
famous Japanese movie Kagemusha- the conduct of a strategic commander is beautifully
summed up in the words- the mountain does not move. When Shingen moved, his
enemies immediately became aware of his weaknesses. When our PAT or Chief or
Armed Forces moved to Lahd Datu- that decision exposed all our weaknesses. First
of all, it exposed out organisational weakness. Our field commanders are not
entrusted with the task at hand and maybe inadvertently shown as not capable of handling an incursion
of over 200 men.
The whole
military conduct was unsound. We had to use commercial aeroplanes to ferry out
soldiers to Sabah forgetting that we have our First Division Army there. We can’t
excuse our logistics weakness by saying that one Hercules transport plane can
only fly 92 soldiers and equipment at one time. We are not going to fly there
only once a day are we? Don’t tell me one Hercules can only do one trip to
Lahad datu per day. We have to move
seven battalions to Lahad datu mostly on civilian aircrafts exposing weaknesses
in our military logistics.
I also
asked the defence minister how much we spent on Ops Daulat. He gave a written answer
saying that since this involves security of the nation, we don’t want to take
issue on the costs. In other words, we spent what we need to spend. Yet only
days later, it was stated that we spent RM300 million on the formation of
Esscom. Presumably a big portion went to defray the costs of defending Lahad
Datu.
The Minister
didn’t answer whether the purchase of assets and decision to spend on consumables
was done though the proper channels or as I asked, done through tender? Because
it was easy for the PAT to justify an expenditure during that period as being dictated
by the emergency nature.
I understand
our PAT is already 60 years old. He has lobbied and the minister has agreed to extend
his services for another 2 years. He has served this country well but it is
time for others to take over. I want to ask- is there a succession plan of the
military top brass?
Why do we
need to extend the services of the current PAT by another 2 years? Does this
mean that the other services chiefs are not qualified to take over? We have at least
four 4-star generals who could easily take over as PAT. we have the Navy Chief,
the Air Force Chief, Chief of Amy and the Chief of the National Defence
University. Why don’t we appoint any of these fellows?
Our military
needs new commanders and new doctrines and needs to be modernized. The Lahad
Datu Incident showed many shortcomings. The latest case of the missing MH370
further exposed our inadequacies. We lacked mission capable assets. The Hercules
planes participating in Australia are doing exactly what? Hercules is merely a transport
plane that is hardly suitable for SAR operations, unless of course we define
eye observation as SAR.
The chief
of armed forces is always housed at a government quarters somewhere near the
old Istana Negara. Recently, the residence of our armed forces chief was renovated
at a cost of nearly RM10 million. Hundreds of low ranking soldiers were mustered
to do work at the house doing cleaning up jobs I suppose. How was it decided
that we needed to spend this amount on sprucing up the official residence of
our army chief? Is it proper also for the PAT to call up our soldiers to do
domestic work at his residence?
RM10 million to renovate the PAT house? That sounds like istana to me. Obviously the elites be they civil servants or ministers have lost touch with the grounds. And I'm sure the renovation project was given to a crony contractor through direct nego.
ReplyDeleteWith these fools leading our country defense, i won't be surprise they are the first people who will run away when someone invades our country.
ReplyDeletePAT ? hehehe hanya pentingkan bila anak2 "dihantar" belajar kat luar negeri, kerap sgt melawat mrk, bila balik dapat pangkat & jawatan elit, dan siapa nak dinikahkan, askar2 dikerah utk jamuan tersgt meriah. Saya setakat makan nasi minyak dgn kuah.
ReplyDeletethe extension of the PAT was not reported in the papers? Normally this is newsworthy item, unless it is deemed highly sensitive?
ReplyDeletePAT ni pun kuat main politik. Kadang2 kena peka kalau ada penjawat awam kena transfer...ada banyak udang sebalik batu...macam Panglima Army kena tukar ke UPNM
ReplyDeleteDato' Mohd Ariff Sabri bin Hj Abdul Aziz, former ADUN Pulau Manis, Pekan and former Ketua Penerangan UMNO (2000-2004), by 14 mac 2012 join DAP...great!!!!smell fishy....,
ReplyDeleteGo take ur fish n eat somewhere else.
DeleteLeave the intellectual discussions to the adults.
Are you suggesting that more taxpayers money be spent on armed forces? Too much money has been spent on armed forces already. They need to be downsized.These Generals are doing nothing but polishing thrir political masters.
ReplyDeleteIn no time a fly by nite company will supply useless RADAR system to us. Current military leadership are bunch of yes men if I may say. PAT is so fat to show exemplary example to soldiers. Those days we have landrover and merz trucks. Today we have so many types that our military not able to handle effectively. tell me who decide on our defence plan if not the political masters.
ReplyDelete1. Lahat Datu - Why our "Rapid Deployment Troops" were not deployed in the first wave?
ReplyDelete2. During the 60s and 70s, we had a few patrol crafts, a few (Recycled /secondhand) minesweepers, a few (Recycled/secondhand) inshore minesweeper and one WW II frigate, and those days we use gun sight to fire our anti aircraft guns and radar for navigation and still managed to protect our shoreline during confrontation. as compare to today's more, brand new powerful fighting ships, computerized advance firing systems and advance radar system. missiles and better guns.
Whatever systems you have, does not matter, it's the tactical deployment of your fighting ships that counts and those days we have good capable team, I am not sure of today.
3. I have told during 60s and 70s, it was a practice in the British Armed forces that a CAF will only hold the post not more then 5 years in a rotation system, so that new ideas/tactics from the new CAF can be tap.
I understand Zulkifly, the current CAF is more like Mahatir. He 'kills' off any officer whom he thinks will pose a challenge to his survival as CAF. Like Mahathir, there is no succession plan in the AF. He moves and he manipulates and makes sure that nobody could take over from him as CAF.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I am being told by retired Armed forces Generals.
If we look at our armed forces, what we see immediately are cannon fodder. They won't stand a chance. Touting armalites and wearing racy sunglasses don't good soldiers make. Neither wearing a chestful of medals.
ReplyDeleteTherefore even if there is a succession plan we won't be addressing the root issue, only transferring an inherent problem that has not been solved by overpriced upgrading of hardware and systems, a response which has constantly, and therefore suspiciously, been the standard suggestion.
In fact doing so only relieves the pressure to make serious changes to the way the defense doctrine of this country must be revamped, for in this day and age, you don't win conflicts anymore by sheer display of numbers.
After all, brainpower and firepower combined overrides any manpower.
If you look carefully at the present setup, something is missing that can and must compensate for the ponderous, lumbering, slow-thinking, dense and high-maintenance-cost defense forces.
That something is a special high-end, fast-response professional group.
Our armed forces need to construct a very special core team comprised of strategists, tacticians, planners, coordinators, fighters and rescuers - with all working together as a seamless and instantly reconfigurable twenty four seven team of results-driven professionally-minded meta-commandos, not the present single-tracked silo's.
Now you may say we already have such a team except their functional members report to different departments. But by the time you can get them together to respond to a multi-faceted threat which has already taken place, it'll be too late and too diffuse because each will just respond to his interpretation of the common information feed that comes in - without the common depth for a uniform punch.
Furthermore, you need to respond before the threat takes form. In other words, response must give way to pro-action. That's a primary change to cultivate.
Which means one of the key functions in the team has to be scenario-simulations based on critical and imaginative thinking and that goes on and on until a menu of prescribed pro-responses is constructed which doesn't require the team to seek politically patronized top-down approval first in order to get cracking. Otherwise the consolidated pro-active thrust becomes delimited by the mental and soul limits of the policy deciders who so far as we can see have a tradition of being as dim-witted about things as their political masters who so far as we can see are just some half-past-six and a half subspecies. No?
2/2
ReplyDeleteLet's jolt a simple scenario out of the air now. Say, hmmm, a regiment of bulletproof-vested Yayan Ruhian's, armed to the teeth with hecklers, grenade launchers and long-range high-powered sniper rifles, take over our nakatomi towers (KL twins, lah) and plant motion-sensor bombs at all entrances. What are we to do? Spy on them with bamboo binoculars?
Yes, once we have that core professional all-in-one team, then it becomes the foundation to establish mission-critical standards in all aspects of any threat or conflict that may arise - including public relations. Right now, it is just excuse building and not results-driven response-building.
Once new standards of operational excellence are set, they can then be replicated across all agencies and to all levels. In the very process of doing so, the training of the foot soldiers can be re-engineered for the 21st century, not the present 18th century.
Look, it seems we don't want to focus on root matters. These days we try to cull off any thoughts about the real reasons for all the mess in so many areas hackney-repeated so often until everything becomes banal. How long do we want to play our sandiwara's? Until it all ends in another tragedy to draw the only trite response - a river of tears for the audience of the tv cameras of the world?
What, have all these years of MM's monkey mamak management of Malaysia turned us into just useless but costly bloated spineless wimps?
Ok, a caveat emptor. If you have not watched The Raid (2011), you must not watch The Raid 2 (2014). The action choreography may be striking, certainly more realistic than what ours can do, the car chase alone would make a Greengrass green with envy, but the violence is too horrific and gruesome. It is so mindblowing that after watching it, you won't be faulted for wanting to throw your tv set out the window for all the crap local fare you've been wasted on all these years. And both are by a neighbor which is supposed to lag us by a few years. Wait till their middle-class overtakes ours. And that's another scenario.
Yes?
Dato, not nice of you to open another can of worms when the whole federal government is swarm with those slimy creatures already. The rot in the whole system is almost complete now. The stench is overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteCan you find one area of the government that is not infected with disease?
What succession plan? The Home minister is 1st Generation from Ponogoro (Java Timor)
ReplyDeleteLike I say before, allow singapore to have a base for training in semporna. Taiwan, Thailand, Brunei & even Australia has leased lands to singapore for military training purposes. Singapore was part of the FPDA and though it does not include sabah, I don't see why Jibby can't explore that option. Save cost, personnels & perhaps, earn some money from the leases
ReplyDeleteIn the first place, why is it so easy to trespass into our country? And the kidnappings etc.
ReplyDelete1. Lahat Datu - Question - Why "Rapid Deployment Troops" were not deployed in the first wave?
ReplyDelete2. During the 60s and 70s, with a few Patrol Crafts, a few (Recycled /secondhand) Minesweepers, Inshore Minesweepers and one WW II frigate, armed with primitive anti aircraft guns and radar for navigation and still managed to protect our shoreline during Confrontation, compare to today's all those brand new bigger fighting ships with modern computerized advance firing systems, heavy guns, missiles, anti submarine weapons and advance radar air and surface detecting system.
No matter whatever advance weapons systems you have, it's the tactical deployment of your fighting ships that counts and that....one advantage we, the Man of War of yesteryear had, they were "switch on, intelligent, loyal and dedicated" team.
3. In the 60s and 70s, it was a practice in the British Armed Forces that a CAF will only hold the post for 5 years and a rotation system between the three service, so new ideas from the new CAF can be tap.
PAT seorang yang berkaliber...berpengalaman...kenapa perlu dipertikaikan...ANDA SEMUA kena INGAT...SESIAPA SAHAJA yang memegang JAWATAN TERTINGGI dalam menjaga KESELAMATAN NEGARA adalah orang yang seperti PAT....Klu anda tidak berkeyakinan dengan pemimpin keselamatan kita...kepada siapa saya atau ANDA SEMUA perlu bergantung...ANDA FAHAM ITU KESELAMATAN NEGARA....ANDA TAHU TAK BAGAIMANA HENDAK MERANCANG DAN MELAKSANAKAN OBJEKTIF DALAM MEMPERTAHANKAN KESELAMATAN DAN KESEJAHTERAAN NEGARA...KLU TAK TAHU ATAU TAK MAMPU...JANGAN PERTIKAIKAN KENAPA DAN MENGAPA PAT PERLU SAMBUNG PERKHIDMATAN...
ReplyDeleteEh sukati la nk pertikai...lebih lebih lagi bila sempadan kita ni senang sgt dimasuki PATI..
DeleteApatah lg dgn insiden lahad datu..
Kalau takde masalah, kita rakyat takde masa nk pertikai benda mcm ni...baik pergi carik duit nk menampung kos sara hidup yg makin naik ni...
sama mcm tukang masak klu buat makanan tak sedap...mmg org akan pertikai..dan tak semestinya org yg pertikai tu tau pun mcm mana nk masak..
paham tak?
Fed up la semua benda x boleh komen, tak boleh persoal..ni semua mentaliti org bodoh.
Such ridiculous taughts and I bear not withstand the stupidity. Pathetic.
DeleteDoes any of us know who is the CDF? If do, how close are we? I do know him very well and I believed he's a great guy and we call him the man of war. Being an infantry man, he knows his subject very well and the reason why he's in Lahat Datu is not because to take over the resonsible of the Div or Bdge Commander. He's been there to support the operation and that is his responsible. Why do we critised him on the issue of MH 370? Since the day one of the incident of MH370, none of us comeout with any idea how to solve the issues, what are the best means to find it. What we know are nothing less but critised. None of us stand forward to give a positive input and help the govt. This is our culture "always pointing a finger toward others but forget that there are another four more fingers pointing towards them".
ReplyDeleteThe current CDF is a "pink panther & he can't even speak proper English ".Cakap melayu pun macam "Prebet Mat Sabun "& he is not fit even to Command The Batallion.Gone are the days where we have "Gen Sany , Gen Ghazali Che Mat , Gen Hassan Salleh et cetera "The Honourable Defence Minister for good sake " Don't not Extend the Current CDF cos the whole Armed Forces knows him and "He knows his Own Records when he was Staff Officer in RASCOM ".An officer qualities is Honesty , Integrity & Courage.The MAF don't need sloopy and stupid "ALOK" -action Lebih Otak Kurang .
ReplyDeleteDato,
ReplyDeleteMy greater concern is whether we even have an Armed Forces in the first place? Given what's happening lately, we will be easily over run by our neighbours if any one of them harbours any ambitious thoughts. We cannot even defend our Sabah shores from a bunch of Abu Sayaf criminals so what can we expect of our Armed Forces?
Pada pandangan saya yang masih berkhidmat dlm ATM dan menjangkau 35 tahun perkhidmatan, PAT, PTU, PTL dan PTD adalah dikalangan pemimpin yang tak layak berada di kedudukan mereka sekarang. Mereka ini highly corrupted and always abuse their power. They promote their own people who will do anything to make them rich and become their obedient follower. They are also known to be very strong supporter to BN govt and always trying to threatened their subordinates to vote for BN. None of them is respected and credible. The whole armed forces is in the deep shit bcos of all this leaders. They are too long in the chair and has develop so much of their interest instead of the nation. Mereka inilah petualang No1 negara yang menghabiskan duit rakyat. Lihat sahaja PTL.. 6 tahun berada di kerusi empok menerajui TLDM. Apa rekod cemerlang beliau dlm membangunkan TLDM. KD Inderapura TERBAKAR, KD Mutiara terbakar, Pari tenggelam di terumbu kerana tercabut shaft. Jutaan duit pembayar cukai habis. Minggu lepas shaft KD PARI ni tercabut lagi. Mujur anak2 kapal cepat bertindak dan kapal terselamat dari bencana. Jika tidak satu lagi tragedi yg akan memalukan negara. Masih tak cukupkah bala yg berlaku selama ini. Kedudkan beliau yg terlalu lama digunakan utk membina kroni2 beliau. Ada dikalangan panglima berpangkat 2 dan 3 bintang memerintah kapal besar pun tak pernah dan bukan antara mereka yang layak. Tapi lagaknya macam terror sgt. Hanya kerana kamcing dgn PTL. Ini realiti bukan auta. Kes PTL jual kopi skim MLM memalukan dan telah memangsakan ramai warga TLDM. Mujurlah aktiviti ini didedahkan di blog dan beliau terpaksa menghentikan aktiviti ini. Apa jadi dgn projek kapal latihan yang gagal setelah pembaran hampir 90% dibayar. Duit rakyat dibazirkan lagi. Namun beliau tetap ditempat yg sama dan mengidam kerusi PAT. Pada pandangan saya demi kepentingan negara panglima2 ini patut dibersarakan dan diganti dgn ramai Panglima2 yg lebih muda dan jauh lebih berkaliber. Jgnlah sampai mereka yg muda dan mempunyai potensi menjadi pemimpin hebat ini menjadi putus asa dan meraka yg memilih utk bersara. Perkara ini telah pun berlaku. Kini TLDM sibuk bersiap sedia dgn sambutan hari TLDM ke 80 dgn aktivit@ yg tak mendatangkan faedah. Tema hari TLDM ke 80 TLDM SIAGA PERAIRAN TERPELIHARA menjadi bahan ketawa warga TLDM... Dato' Jamil dan ramai lagi pegawai-pegawai kanan yg berkaliber meninggalkan perkhidmatan TLDM kerana penat dgn karenah beliau yg panas baran dan double std. Kerajaan BN silap memanjangkan usia persaraan kpd 60 dan kini pemimpin2 diperingkat tertinggi ini menikmati keseronokan berada dikerusi empuk sekian lama cukup bagi mereka membina kekayaan besar dan menjadikan ketiga2 cabang perkhidmatan seperti milik mereka. Saya harap Dato Arif boleh terus membawa perkara ini ke parlimen bagi mengembalikan kegemilangan ATM. Kesimpulannya.. kesemua pemimpin No1 ATM, TLDM, TUDM dan TDM wajar bersara dan peluang diberi kpd Panglima2 yg lebih muda dan berwawasan. Mereka yg ada skrg ini hanya menghabiskan duit rakyat dan merosakkan ATM dan mengkompromi keselamatan negara. peristiwa Lahad Datu dan MH370 sudah cukup menjelaskan kelemahan ATM secara keseluruhannya. Bukan shj negara luar mengejek dan menempelak ATM tapi rakyat sendiri telah hilang keyakinan.
ReplyDeleteWho else better person can replace him when all service chief are also ALOK.. corrupted.. selfish.. sluggish.. manipulator.. and some of them is "kaki bomoh"... may be they believed the soldiers can go to war with bamboo stick.. ashamed on teh nations..
ReplyDeleteDato,if I am the PAT,and had the tax payers spend ten million on renovation of my free gomen mansion,courtesy of the taxpayers,I would want to work as long as permitted.So that I can live like a big guy in a luxurious home.Like all the Umnoputras and cronies.
ReplyDeletePut the PAT to live in the broken down JKR quarters with leaking roofs and pipes and it is a no brainer that he will opt for early retirement.
This is our culture "always pointing a finger toward others but forget that there are another four more fingers pointing towards them".
ReplyDeletehah what is being lamented about as in the above ? the usual scripts of the gomen ? the gomen's culture is they manipulate everything and backed it up with the standard remark above; well too many thousands of Malaysians have never experienced this kind of endless incompetency in developed nations, hence that's why they are developed. Their leaders are scrutinizingly held accountable - an extension from their very school and career culture - their way of life, therein when assuming leadership, it is expected they perform in the highest benchmark at all times, in adherence to the charter of their respective dept / organization / public office, or they are booed out.
In Bolehland ? Kaki bodek serta yg korup dinaikkan pangkat, yg berani mencabar penyelewegan, or are bold to question and analyze critically are kept in the freezer. Any Brigadier General dare to criticize a lousy PAT ?
One of these chaps received a decoration in Brunei, but made a brief appearance at the entrance of the investiture hall, bowed and left. I will not mention the year this happened.
ReplyDeleteThis guy was so fat that cheeky Bruneians laughed for days after the ceremony - always broadcast live every year. The last time this happened was when the late Tun Ghazali Shafie was there to receive a decoration, but then the Tun was already quite ill and had to be assisted by two men. Still he displayed poise and dignity befitting his status as an extraordinary ex-cabinet minister.
I think something is really wrong with our country.
In a country where national integrity and security is of paramount importance both the PDRM and ATM should shoulder responsibility and cooperate to defend this country and neutralise any threats forthcoming. They are so effective in combatting thousnads of street demonstrators but were unprepared miserably to ward off 200 insurgents. We were very sad that unnecessary loss of defence force lives happened. Their leaders bought useless submarines and patrol boats costing billions and billions yet dumbfounded even to detect insurgents as thousnads of intelligentia personnel are diverted to work on eyeing opposition politicians rather than keeping an eye on our borders. So much so thousands of PATI came in and out like a walk in the park. What is the competency level of our military and internal security forces?? Our borders have and are being breached and intruded even as we speak on daily basis like for the past 25 years already. What a sorrg state for our nation as our enemies would have already amassed ready insurgent forces numbering in the millions to take arms and throw us offguard if they want to. Lahad Datu incident is puny. We have PATI from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines and Myanmar numbering around 3 millions to fight our meagre 1 million or so ATM forces. For God Sake !! What on earth are our leaders and ATM thinking and doing!!!
ReplyDeleteTak malukah TLDM yg hanya mampu menghantar aset-aset milik MISC dalam misi di Teluk Aden dan lautan Hindi. Mungkin seluruh kapal MISC wajar di cat kelabu dan anggota2nya diserapkan sebagai pasukan simpanan TLDM seperti yg dilakukan ke atas BM5 dan BM6. Kemudian bolehlah TLDM war-warkan kecanggihan dan kegemilangan TLDM di media cetak milik BN. Dan sebaiknya bagi pangkat 4 bintang pada CEO MISC. I think he can do better job than TSAJ. Huhu.. Malunya... tapi TLDM tetap berbangga.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.navy.mil.my/index.php/media-massa/berita/berita-utama/item/752-penugasan-bantuan-logistik-operasi-mencari-mh370-oleh-kapal-auxiliary-tldm-bunga-mas-enam-bm6-ke-koridor-selatan-perairan-lautan-hindi
Dan bab-bab macam ni TSAJ memang hebat... pi tgk kapal2 hancur.. Duit rakyat terus disedut.. Puiiii..
All this corrupt military commanders should be shoot into dead for betraying the nations... Ashamed on all of you..
ReplyDeleteHancusss negara jika tiada tindakan pembetulan di ambil segera. Hanya rakyat yg dapat memperbetulkan semua ini.. Korupsi menjadi darah daging dalam pemerintahan bernanah busuk BN..
ReplyDeleteNo wonder many Malaysian migrate to ather state as Malaysian seems to be heading into a fail state.. Something need to be done immediately to save this nations..
ReplyDeleteVery scary. What will happen to this nations if we are under attack with all this monkey taking a lead.. Oh God please save Malaysia..
ReplyDeleteTak payah citer beli aset baru lah Aziz ooi.. Aset yang ada pun hang dah bagi pelingkup.. projek yg ada semua gagal.. duit rakyat lebur.. hang jual kopi lagi bagus lah aziz..
ReplyDeleteThe current Chiefs of Armed Forces, The AirForce & The Navy are BN lapdogs. They would say yes to what the BN Morons would say as long as the get the "Bone". There are other Armed Forces officers whom are far more capable than these 3 clowns. We need the great leadership of our general as those whom have led us in the 70s, 80s & 90s.
ReplyDelete