It will be not be easy to pick the five top topics which dominated conversations and discussions among Malaysians during the Golden Tiger Chinese New Year celebrations as there are so many issues contending for a place among the top spots.

Undoubtedly, those contending for placing among the top five topics would include the following:

• The scandal of the two missing jet engines which disappeared all the way to Uruguay;

• The multi-billion ringgit submarine that cannot dive;

• The RM2 million cash seized from the apartment of a political secretary to a Cabinet Minister;

• The continuing mystery of the death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters last July;

• Sodomy 2 trial of Parliamentary Opposition Leader and Prime Minister-in-waiting, giving Malaysia another national and international “black eye”;

• The Federal Court 5-0 decision upholding the undemocratic Umno grab of power from Pakatan rakyat and coup de’tat of Perak State government in February last year;

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I was stunned when I stood up late last night to debate the 2009 Budgetary estimates for the Defence Ministry to be told by the Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee, that MPs are limited to five minutes each!

The Defence Ministry has a budget of RM13 billion for next year and is one of the six big-spending Ministries marred by mega scandals of multi-billion ringgit defence procurements.

Speaking in protest under the five-minute limit, I touched on two issues.

One is on the RM1.6 billion Eurocopter helicopter scandal – expressing concern that unless the Public Accounts Committee report on its inquiry into the Eurocopter deal is tabled in Parliament by today, Parliament would be denied of an opportunity to have a debate in the current meeting on the PAC findings and recommendations, making the PAC report quite academic and even useless.

I stressed that the PAC report should be made public in advance of any parliamentary debate so that aviation experts and even aircraft manufacturers could review the evaluation process followed in the Eurocopter deal as so far no independent experts apart from the RMAF/Mindef had been invited to provide expert opinion on the various aspects of the decision-making process. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, the Star carried a letter by an ex-airman contending that “We don’t need the Eurocopter”.

He wrote:

“AS an ex-RMAF serviceman for 22 years, I believe I am qualified to comment on our government’s insistence on purchasing the Eurocopters. Worse still, without any physical tests.

“Buying the Eurocopter for use in Malaysia is like buying an F1 for use in Petaling Jaya; or a Rolls Royce for use in a remote kampung.

“This chopper is such a sophiscated machine, it is not meant for the normal role of a helicopter. I still see the Aloutte and Nuri (Sea King) in service in other countries.

“Eurocopter is more a combat helicopter. Who do we want to fight anyway? Why use it for search and rescue or during flood relief operations? Other choppers can do that just as well or even better!

“The Eurocopter is expensive. So are the training, spare-parts, servicing, accessories or role changes and armoury. Can we afford the subsequent costs of parts and modern armoury?

“You don’t buy such a sophisticated machine without evaluation. By first going through its built-in purpose, the subsequent cost of training for pilots and ground crews, availability and cost of spare parts, etc.

“Saying that the Alouettes and Nuris are old and obsolete is no justification for buying a machine that will not be fully utilised.

“Just buying the armoury to go with the machine will cost a bomb! Buying the Eurocopter just to show off is downright arrogant!”

As the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had concluded its “rush” inquiry into the RM1.6 billion Cougar EC725 Eurocopter helicopters, can the PAC Chairman Datuk Azmi Khalid answer the questions posed by this former RMAF personnel? Read the rest of this entry »

Public Accounts Committee Chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid has provided the most eloquent testimony why there is a Commonwealth parliamentary convention that a senior Opposition parliamentarian should be head of the PAC (and why a Minister who has just stepped down from the Cabinet should not head the PAC) if the parliamentary watchdog committee is not to be bullied or overawed by the Executive to rubber-stamp or whitewash controversial government decisions like the RM1.6 billion 12 Couger EC725 Eurocopter deal fiasco.

Yesterday, Azmi announced that the PAC had cleared the government of any procedural abuse in the RM1.604 billion Eurocopter helicopter deal and that the deal “was done in accordance with procedures”.

Is Azmi aware that his announcement clearing the government of any procedural abuse in the helicopter tender process has created consternation, disbelief and dismay among right-thinking Malaysians and undermined public confidence in the institution of Parliament for it runs counter to the clear and grave procedural abuse in the tender process requiring physical evaluation and in this case, test flights of the helicopters shorted-listed?

How can Azmi claim on the one hand that there is no procedural abuse in the tender process and yet in the next breath admit to the fact that there was the grave procedural abuse of no physical evaluation and test flight of the helicopters concerned? Read the rest of this entry »

Are Nuris “flying coffins”? If not, why not just upgrade them for a few hundred million ringgit, a small fraction of the cost as compared to the billion-ringgit purchase of Cougar EC725 Eurocopters, which are 40-year-old Cougars in any event?

This is one important question which the Public Accounts Committee should probe, answer and report to Parliament by before the end of the month in its current inquiry into the billion-ringgit Cougar EC725 Eurocopter deal fiasco.

The Deputy Defence Minister, Datuk Abu Seman Yusop, in his winding-up on behalf of the Defence Ministry in the 2009 Budget debate on Thursday, was not only unable to rebut allegations concerning very grave issues about propriety, accountability and professionalism in the decision-making process in the tender for the helicopters to replace the Nuris , but reinforced concerns of unprofessional and below-par leadership running the Defence Ministry.

This raises the even more vital question whether Malaysian defence and security as well as the lives and welfare of the armed services personnel are really in safe and trustworthy hands and the topmost priority of those in the highest echelons of the Defence Ministry.

This is apparent from the video (embedded below) of the parliamentary grilling of Abu Seman by Pakatan Rakyat MPs in Parliament on Thursday. Read the rest of this entry »