Friday, April 22 @ 17:01:57 MYT
Oleh M.G.G. Pillai
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
THE DIRECTOR OF MILITARY INTELLIGENCE, Lieut.-Gen. Dato' Wan Abu Bakar omar, proved by his own words why he should be removed forthwith.
In an irrelevant television and print interview with Bernama yesterday (19 April 2005), broadcast on all TV channels and reported in the newspapers today, he proved why military intelligence, at least in Malaysia, is an oxymoron. He ignored totally Singapore's breach of our national security, to which the armed forces, the police forces, the intelligence agencies, the prime minister and deputy prime minister, were complicit. Instead, he attempts to divert attention to an irrelevant operational episode in the unchartered waters in the Sulewesi Sea when a Malaysian and Indonesian warship grazed each other.
The defence ministry first denied the report in Indonesian newspapers, but had to retract when the Indonesian navy gave further particulars. The Indonesian military attache, Col. Hartind Asrin, met the deputy prime minister and defence minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. The Indonesian newspaper, Kompas, published an Indonesian navy press release which said Dato' Seri Najib had apologised to the Indonesian military attache, Col. Hartind Asrin, for the Sulewesi incident. Dato' Seri Najib took offence at this and threatened to sue Kompas. Defence and military attaches deal with the DMI. Ammbassadors meets cabinet ministers. So why did Col. Hartind break protocol to meet Dato' Seri Najib alone at the defence ministry? Unless he was summoned. Who summoned him, and why? Curiously, in a meeting like this, the DMI would have been present. He did not say, in his interview, if he was. It would appear he was not. Why?
Why did he not talk of the collosal breach of natioonal security in which a Singapore-owned mystery ship had laid anchor outside the Klang Port limit but within the pilotage area for ten months. When questions were raised about it in an Utusan Malaysia report, all involved contradicted each other on why the ship, the Glenn Braveheart � neither a naval nor a merchant ship but allegedly provided security for the US Navy, its only client, and 11 other Commonwealth and regional navies � was anchored in Port Klang since July 2004. But its cover is a lie. The Marine Police is in charge of security to 12 nautical miles, the Royal Malaysian Navy the next 188 miles of the exclusive economic zone. Neither gave explicit permission to it.
Yet the RMN did not protest at this usurpation of its authority. Who authorised the Glenn Braveheart to provide this security in Malaysian waters? The defence ministry, the DMI, RMN, the Malaysian cabinet? Or were those responsible handsomely paid to look the other way? Still, it does not explain why the RMN, did not complain, nor report its presence, for its naval ships passed it en route to Aceh for months.
The Glenn Braveheart caper is treason, no less. It had on board Nepalese commandoes, and a full complement of weapons one would expect of a navy ship providing escort services. Its automatic identification system, which, unlike naval ships, should be switched on at all times but it was not. Why? Then it quietly left port in the middle of the night. Why was it not ordered to remain until investigations were over? Besides, Dato' Seri Najib must tell when it would return to continue to map the coast, which was his reason why it was here. Why did the Marine Police chief and the Harbour Master allow it to leave port? Did they not know of the furore about its presence?
The two men must be ordered to show cause why they should not be dismissed. The National Security Bureau � formerly the National Security Council, and changed for no reason than a Bureau had more gravitas than Council � co-ordinates the intelligence agencies, but it operates at all times as a toothless watch dog. Frighteningly, it, and its members, slept through this breach of national security. The prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, must demand the resignation of all involved, and punished, for sleeping on the job.
Equally shocking, no MP thought it fit to raise it in Parliament, which was in session. The DMI has to explain why he did not order the ship detained, and why he did not protest when the ship left quietly in the night. The Malaysian subsidiary of the Singapore owners of the ship should be asked to explain, and its berriboned board of retired senior naval officers, held to account. And the Glenn Braveheart banned from Malaysian waters.
But this breach is not rare. In the last five years alone, at least a dozen incidents took place, including the Sipadan and Pandanan kidnappings in Sabah, the weapons heist in Grik (the weapons disappeared but an allegedly extremist Muslim group called Al-Maunah were blamed, some weapons recovered in a fake encounter nearby and several sentenced to death and long terms of imprisonment), the spate of kidnappings and killings at sea (which many concerned intelligence officials believe a co-ordinated hand in these), the Nur Misuari caper when he escaped to Malaysia which then returned him to the Philippine authorities, He is in jail there but not before he provided the name of every Malaysian intelligence official who dealt with him over three decades, putting their lives at risk.
Equally shocking is the total silence of the think tanks � ISIS, ASLI, MIMA, amongst others � those handling national security affairs at universities, newspaper editors, the NGOs who are quick to protest when this happens beyond our borders. One think tanker insists Indonesian (and by extension ASEAN) newspapers should ignore their government briefings; but accept only the Malaysian version! This gives one a rough idea of their irrelevance in national life.
The Cabinet should have pulled rank and ordered immediate investigations, but it is too busy deciding if, when and how foreign labour will be recruited, and fixing the price of petrol. One can understand why. There is more money under the counter that can be dished around, in which some of them would get a share. The armed forces is responsible for preserving national sovereignty, the police force national security. The intelligence agencies provides real time information to both. All failed. No spin, nor an apology to Dato' Seri Najib from Kompas, could alter that.
Only a Royal Commission can correct this intelligence failure, with some sessions necessarily held in secret. Pak Lah and Dato' Seri Najib are at each other's political throats that the country runs on autopilot, with national secrets available to the highest bidder. The former deputy prime minister, Tun Ghafar Baba, did not mince his words in Kota Bharu over the weekend. He said since corruption is deep-rooted and widespread in BN, with hundreds millions of ringgit changing hands before a party or general elections, he proposed that cabinet and party posts be tendered and given to the highest bidder, the money paid into the Treasury. Once in office, they should tell the Anti-Corruption Agency how they came to this undeclared wealth.
He said it in jest, but he is an angry 81-year-old furious at the corruption in its various euphemisms that pervades national political life in Malaysia. But when almost every public official and most high ranking civil servants are on the take, what could one expect? The inevitable question then: Who would bell this national security cat?
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