SINCE 1990, Malaysia has had nine defence ministers, two of whom served twice. They are:
Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak – October 1990 to May 1995
Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar – May 1995 to December 1999
Najib – December 1995 to March 2008
Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi – March 2008 to April 2009
Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi – April 2009 to May 2013
Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein – May 2013 to May 2018
Mohamad Sabu – May 2018 to February 2020
Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob – March 2020 to August 2021
Hishammuddin – August 2020 to present
Of these nine, who is responsible for the latest mega defence procurement scandal – the RM9 bil littoral combatant ship (LCS) scandal?
Zahid had said it was not fair to link him to the LCS scandal as he was not the defence minister when the RM9 bil LCS contract was signed on July 17, 2014.
Is he then putting the blame on Hishammuddin, who was defence minister from May 2013 to May 2018?
Hishammuddin has yet to disclose what he did as defence minister to ensure that the largest procurement in the history of the defence ministry did not end up as a disaster and a scandal.
However, he has the opportunity, being the defence minister once more, to right the wrongs to ensure that Malaysia can take delivery of the six LCS; no single LCS has been completed although the taxpayers have paid more than RM6 bil for its procurement.
Who else in Zahid’s opinion should the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) call to understand the intricacies of the LCS scandal which the PAC had not called?
“Can’t deny the undeniable”
The UMNO president cannot deny the undeniable – that as defence minister in July 2011, he overturned the decision as recommended by the Royal Malaysian Navy to contract six Dutch-made Sigma LCS and choose the Scorpene manufacturer’s six French-made Gowind LCS within three days without consulting the navy, the end-user.
The Letter of Intent (LOI) of the procurement was issued on Oct 16, 2020, and the Letter of Award (LOA) was issued on Dec 16, 2011.
In fact, the LCS project was so contractor-centric instead of end-user-driven that the navy never knew that the decision had been overturned on July 11, 2011, and had to be informed by the contractor.
It’s no wonder that the then head of the navy, Admiral Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar, said in one of his 10 letters of protest – five of which were sent to the defence minister and two to the prime minister, all of which were all ignored – that “there is no precedent of the design being decided by the main contractor and not the end-user”.
Abdul Aziz said “something was gravely wrong” as the navy and not the contractor should be setting the terms of the LCS contract. He also said the navy was “fighting a losing battle”.
That Zahid as defence minister in 2011 took three days to overturn the decision to procure the Sigma LCS and go for the Gowind LCS is the greatest mystery of the UMNO-Barisan Nasional (BN) Government in six decades.
“Three possible scenarios”
Going through the PAC’s LCS report and the testimonies given by the various witnesses at the PAC hearings, I can think of three possible scenarios for Zahid overturning his decision in three days on the acquisition of Sigma LCS and favouring Gowind LCS:
First, Zahid was a very bad minister who did not bother to get the views of the navy, the end-user of the LCS procurement, and unilaterally and arbitrarily decided to change the Dutch-made Sigma LCS design to the French-made Gowind LCS design without understanding what he was doing.
Secondly, Zahid was instructed by the then prime minister, Najib, to change his decision to procure the Sigma LCS to the Gowind LCS design, and he had to execute the prime minister’s instruction regardless of the views and needs of the end-user, the navy.
Thirdly, the decision to procure the Gowind LCS was decided by the then prime minister, Najib, from the very beginning, going back to 2009 probably, and Zahid knew about this.
This meant that the nearly year-long six meetings from October 2009 to May 2010 between the navy and the defence ministry on the former’s recommendation for the Sigma LCS, which led to Zahid as defence minister giving final approval on May 26, 2011, for the Sigma LCS procurement, was a pure charade and the navy’s views were utterly irrelevant and inconsequential.
Meanwhile, it is most ridiculous to blame Mohammad Sabu when he became the defence minister in May 2018 for the LCS scandal.
This is as in April 2018, a month before the UMNO-BN Government was toppled by Pakatan Harapan, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEMs), including the Naval Group (former manufacturer of Scorpene submarine and the real power in the RM9 bil contract), had stopped work because they had not been paid by the contractor, Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS).
This information is found in the testimony of former defence ministry secretary-general Datuk Muez Abd Aziz before the PAC on Nov 18, 2020.
“Most incriminating evidence”
The most incriminating evidence that Najib cannot disclaim responsibility for the LCS scandal is his failure to deny that he was the “hidden hand” behind the LCS scandal and his challenge to those blaming him for the LCS scandal to show proof that he interfered with the ships’ design.
There is strong circumstantial evidence that Najib was the hidden hand behind the LCS scandal – as he was prime minister, finance minister and former defence minister, twice, his “French connection” and for making the most noise after the publication of the PAC’s LCS report.
However, the most challenging issue now is whether Hishammuddin can redeem himself for his failure in his first tenure as defence minister from 2013 to 2018 by averting the LCS scandal and ensuring the achievement of four objectives.
These are: completing the six LCS, fighting corruption in defence procurements; protecting the welfare of military and ex-military personnel; and safeguarding the nation’s security and sovereignty. – Aug 15, 2022
Lim Kit Siang is the Iskandar Puteri MP, DAP supremo and a veteran lawmaker.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
