VIEW DEFENCE PROCUREMENTS IN POSITIVE LIGHT, SAYS M'SIAN ARMY CHIEF

By Shahrullizan Rusli

SEREMBAN (Malaysia), Nov 14 (Bernama) -- Of late, a number of procurement
programmes to enhance the nation's defence capabilities had been perceived
negatively by the general public as seen in the purchase of the EC-725
Eurocopter helicopters and Scorpene submarines.

The public as well as politicians had questioned the need for purchases of
these defence assets worth billions of ringgit and who are the country's real
external enemies.

Such views may be due to the unfounded perception that Malaysia faces no
real threats from outside and there could be improprieties involved in defence
procurements.

Maybe many had forgotten about the Confrontation more than 40 years ago,
which took place after Independence in 1957, when a neighbouring nation took on
the offensive as it was against the formation of the Federation of Malaysia.

Each defence procurement is done based on the National Defence Policy
(DPN) that allows the country to consider a defensive or offensive approach in
protecting its sovereignty, according to the Chief of Army, General Muhammad
Ismail Jamaluddin.

He said the policy calls for all parties concerned to establish an
Operational Concept (OC).

"The OC is important as it entails how the armed forces will uphold the
policy in defending our sovereignty in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)," he
told this writer in southern town of Port Dickson near here recently.

The defence strategists will then check whether there are any weaknesses to
be overcome in terms of the nation's defence, for example, like in determining
whether the maritime defence equipment or assets are adequate enough to defend
the country's EEZ.

"This is where the strategists at the Armed Forces Command will determine
what needs to be overcome in terms of any inadequacy in the country's defence
capabilities like whether we need more warships, planes or a bigger infantry and
so on.

"During the days of the Emergency (1948-1960), the Army was given priority
as it needed the best weapons to defeat the Communists," he said.

But in line with the challenges of today, priority has been given to the
Navy and Air Force. As such, this does not give rise to claims that the Army has
been sidelined, he explained.

According to Muhammad Ismail, an area which has to looked into in terms of
the nation's defence is the current lack of the Airborne Warning and Control
Systems (Awacs) aircraft to enable to monitor the nation's airspace more
closely.

Malaysia has surface radar surveillance but this coverage is inadequate in
terms of providing better coverage on 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 within a short space of time
and there is a big possibility that services that do not have a big role in the
National Defence Policy may be forced to postpone their procument of assets," he
said.

He said the attitude of some Malaysians was rather disappointing as they did
not know the importance of developing the nation's defence capabilities.

"Each time a procurement is made on a system, it is often linked with
allegations of corrupt practices. Many (of them) remain ignorant and this is
obvious when they ask why fighter jets needed to be bought, who are the nation's
enemies, wouldn't it be better to invest money in infrastructure development
instead and so forth," he said.

A quick check by Bernama on Internet chat rooms often shows such negative
perception among Malaysians on the country's defence procurements while this
attitude is hardly evident among Indonesians or Singaporeans.

The Indonesians in fact regretted on their nation's failure to develop its
naval capabilities to better levels while the Singaporeans are extremely proud
of their nation's defence capabilities as can be seen in sgforums.com,
especially in an opinion column known as "Militarynuts".
-- BERNAMA