Art Harun
The theft of not one, but TWO F5-E fighter jet engines from the Royal Malaysian Air Farce, eh sorry, Air Force, perhaps aptly defines the year 2009 as far as Malaysia (1 or otherwise) is concerned.
The absurdity of it all. And not to mention the audacity of it all. And as if to further add sodium chloride to the wide gaping wounds that all of us, Malaysians, suffer every time our so called leaders forget to take their medications, we are told that so and so have been sacked or told to leave their job, some even earning pensions and whatever.
First it was some plastic explosives being taken out from the storage to blow to smithereens some poor woman from far away lands, whose entry into Malaysia was erased from record. Just like that. As if C4 explosives from the people who are supposed to protect our country are just some cheap chewing gum which could be taken by anybody, at any time, for whatever reason. As if Immigration records are notations made on some scrap book which could be altered, amended or erased by anybody, at any time and for whatever reason.
And nobody even shake their butt to do anything. No report. No investigation. No blinking nothing. Just like that. At the same time, the public has to endure living in fear of crimes. We have to keep even our rubbish bins in locks and chains. Our drainage cover has to be welded lest it will be stolen in bright day light. Our roads and lanes have instant holes as the sewage covers are stolen. The women can’t even walk on the side of our roads for fear of being dragged to their death by handbag snatchers.
Nowhere is safe. Not even in the police lock-ups, as Kugan found out the hard way. Not at the MACC office either, if reports of torture and even death are to be believed.
Meanwhile, those upon whom are entrusted the duty to protect us are busy tracing individuals like Raja Petra Kamarudin, who apparently had so insulted Islam that he was, and still is, deemed to be a threat to national security. Even then, with all the might and powers of the State behind them, they are not able to trace him!
If RPK had insulted Islam, what about those who had walked after Friday prayers with bloodied and severed cow head with the policemen standing by the side doing nothing for fear of “making the situation worse”? Haven’t they insulted Islam? What about those who said non-Malays are second class citizens? And those who wrote that the Kelings are so lucky to be in Malaysia that they should just shut up and count their blessings? Oh well, they are given a pat on their shoulder because the newspaper they wrote for is the “voice of the people”.
And at the same time, billions are squandered, pillaged and stolen. PKFZ have become really dirty alphabets. And what do we all get? Yes. We get engineers, architects and some minions charged for falsifying claims and the like. Now, the questions are, were all those false claims paid? If so, why? And who are the beneficiaries of those payments? Who authorised those payments? Aren’t they guilty of something too?
Elsewhere we are the masters of sloganeering and self-glorification. We shout and scream 1Malaysia at every possible instant and opportunity. Why? Even our mandatory “salam” has been revised to “Salam Satu Malaysia”. We have become, or been reduced to, a society which is shallow. Which is no deeper than our skin and the colour of it.
We are obsessed with some drama actress becoming the second wife of a Member of Parliament who ironically declared that women “leaked” once a month. Never mind the FDIs. Never mind the proposed GST. Never mind the Copenhagen Conference failing to reach any kind of tangible consensus on climate control.
Never mind. Because we are a society who love celebrities and their weddings. And divorce too.
An old Professor of mine remarked something profound to me over tea some months ago. After leaving Malaysia for Japan for so many years, he observed that Japan had gone through a period of extreme physical and material transformations. Coming back to Malaysia briefly after some years, he also noted that Malaysia had achieved so much physical and material transformations, just like Japan.
But there is one marked difference. Japan and her people have not seen their values and honour change. Their values and old aged honour are still part of their society. They still know their responsibilities. Their duty to account. They still possess a deep sense of honour. And all that despite their physical and material achievements.
Malaysia and her people, according to him, have lost their sense of honour. We have changed our values. We are now measured not by our honesty, honour and sense of responsibility. We are now measured by the location of our house and mansions; by the Cayennes, X6 and whatever road going behemoth that we drive; by how much power we could wield to bend the rules and laws in our favour; by how much favour we could call our friends in high places to do us. And of course by the trophy wives and girl friends (and vice versa) who are seen beside us with the obligatory gold and diamond crusted watch, LV handbag and Blahnik shoes.
Because that is what we are now. How we acquire those material possessions is not important. The question is what we do possess. We are a society which is almost bereft of any spiritual and moral guidance. As if whatever is fair is foul and foul is fair. As if the very fabric of our existent has changed. And for worse, that is.
It is little wonder that two whole jet engines could be stolen from our royal air force. It is a right royal embarrassment, by any count. But what do we care? They are old engines. We could buy thousands more. We have the money. We have palm oil, crude oil and gas which we plunder from some states without compensation. And the persons whom we think are responsible for this shameful, dastardly and treasonous act have left.
Never mind any criminal offence which have quite obviously been committed by these people. They have after all been punished by being told to quietly leave. That was what we did to that Penang mamak character Ahmad Ismail, remember? And Isa Samad, remember? We dealt with them internally. They have served their sentence. And they, as everybody else, deserve a second, or even a third, chance. Why? Even Anwar Ibrahim is now a Member of Parliament.
And so we are told that we do have a full-proof system which would ensure these kind of things do not happen. But is this system fool-proof? Because if it is not, then there will always be some fools who can’t even operate within a full-proof system. That is quite obvious.
And so we are told that there will not be a cover up. Yes, we, the people expect that there will be no cover up. But of course what constitute a “cover-up” is subject to interpretation, isn’t it? Like “we will not discuss it ever ever because the matter concerns national security”. Is that a cover up? Or “we cannot charge them because matters concerning national security should not be discussed in open Courts”. Is that a cover-up? Or “we can only charge them behind closed doors because the matter concerns national security”. Is that a cover-up?
And we are left to wonder how it all happen. And why did it take a full year before the whole magical act was discovered by our ever vigilant military who is supposed to protect our nation from rogues countries, evil terrorists, Islam-insulting individuals scum of the Earth and Ketuanan Melayu evil objectors who really should just go back to wherever they came from (never mind the fact that these people were born in this country). And quite why it takes another full year before this event is made known to all of us, the stupid, gullible and irrelevant stakeholders of the military? Well, never mind. We will tell you what we think is relevant. And at the most opportune moment as deemed by us.
Would it be a severe case of paranoia if we, the people, start to wonder what else has been stolen from our military? Like our defence strategy? Or tactical blueprint? After all, these are sensitive and highly protected secrets (or supposed to be). Remember what they said in Parliament when questions were raised as to why there was not open tender for the submarines that we bought? It was said that open tenders should not be called because that will expose our national security matters unnecessarily.
Oh well, why must we worry. We still have our submarines.
Hello Chief: Where are the skyhawks!21/12/2009 by drrafick
1. My conversation with a retired Air Force General about the missing F5E jet engine led to me to an interesting story. I was intrigued when he cajoled and told me that there is nothing to be shocked about a missing engine when an entire fleet of aircraft went missing from the TUDM inventory. Entire fleet of aircraft! What was he talking about? I thought he was kidding and making his usual jokes about aircraft missing from the radar screen but when he said that it was missing from the TUDM inventory that led me to place few more calls.
2. It appears that via a special Government to Government arrangement, the Malaysian government bought 80 A4 Skyhawks from the USAF in the 1980’s. It was delivered to us at the beginning of 1984. These are working aircraft with plenty of mileage to go. Thirty five aircraft were brought back to Malaysia and used by our Air Force. A few dropped from the sky, one went missing over South China Sea (Lt. Wahi) and the rest was used until they could not be used again. Some became spare parts. The balance (45 jets) was left in the California desert parked under the scorching sun. They were never brought back.
A4 Skyhawk
3. The 45 aircraft that were left in the Californian desert were never brought back. It was placed under the management of a company in the US. This company ended paying the parking chargers for years. Sometime between the years 2000 to 2003, RMAF decided to take back the aircraft and sell them off. Our TUDM officers from Kuala Lumpur were sent to look for these aircraft in the desert. They found them but the shocking part is that the RMAF no longer legally own them.
4. As it turned out, the paperwork involving the purchase went missing and our Air Force were not able to show proof of ownership. Therefore they could not take possession of the Skyhawks from the open air parking area. The haggling and tussle over the ownership continued for several years until it became clear that the aircraft ownership could not be ascertained. The Malaysian Government paid for them but did not kept the receipt.
5. I remember the matter was raised in Parliament several years back and unverified reports indicated that the aircraft was sold to an American company for pittance. Maybe our MP’s should revisit this matter again. My friend was right when he said entire fleet of 45 aircraft disappeared from TUDM Inventory. In actual fact, they were not even recorded in the TUDM inventory. Since it did not go into our books ,despite having paid for them (and having no receipt to show proof of payment), then no aircraft actually went missing. The only thing missing was the money for the 55 aircraft!
6. Coming back to the missing RM50 mill engine which is fixed on a USD 2 mill ionaircraft, I am perplexed to read in the papers today (December 21, 2009) that a Brigadier General (BG) and his 40 man were asked to leave service early. (Sounds like Ali Baba and the 40 thieves!). They were not charged. There was no court martial. It would appear that the BG and several others lost their pensions but upon appeal they got them back. What the heck is wrong with the system? No one even realized that the BG was asked to leave until the story came to limelight in today’s news. I am sure we all can predict on why the story was released to the MSM today. It wanted to show that the government did something.
7. I am not sure whether taking administrative action is sufficient in this case. We are talking about Crime Breach of Trust and more. We are talking about 2 missing jet engines worth rm 50 million a piece that were supposed to be fitted on USD 2 million aircraft. Knowing the Malaysian way of wanting to settle problems, it was managed quietly the wrong way. In the meantime, everyone had forgotten about the 55 aircraft that Malaysian Government paid but not included into TUDM inventory. Maybe, they went into the army or navy inventory. Who knows mixed up can happen.
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