722% INCREASE IN ARMS IMPORTS? WHERE’S THE THREAT?

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Jun 29, 2010

I can understand why the tiny red dot is in the top 10 arms purchasers. For Malaysia, where is the threat???

By Masterwordsmith

The Malaysian Insider reported HERE that PKR’s Chua Tian Chang demanded that Parliament hold an emergency motion to discuss the acquisition of two types of missiles for the two Scorpene submarines Malaysia had purchased. He claimed that Malaysia had overpaid for the purchase of 40 SM 39 Exocet Block 2 missiles and 30 Black Shark torpedoes.

The report said:

“Based on the acquisition records by the Pakistan government the SM39 missiles only cost 3.07 million euros (RM12.260) (per unit) while the acquisition records by Portugal show that the Black Shark torpedoes only cost 2 million euros (per unit).

“After calculations were made, the total market price costs of the two types of missiles amounted to 182.8 million euros. But the Malaysian government’s cost of purchase is 219.265 million euros. This means that the government had overpaid 20 per cent (36.465 million euros) compared to the market price,” said Chua.

This disturbing news prompted a search on arms deals in the region. If you visit the Stockholm International Peace Institute HERE, you can access lots of data about the topic.

Reuters reported HERE:

A huge increase in arms imports by Southeast Asian countries in the past five years could threaten the region’s stability, a Swedish-based research institute said on Monday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual report on Monday that arms imports by Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia had leapt by 84 percent, 146 percent and 722 percent respectively between 2005 and 2009, compared with the previous five years.

Good heavens!!! An increase of 722 per cent in arms imports is NO LAUGHING MATTER. I mean I can understand if this is in an online game or in a movie but we are talking about public expenditure and whether current conditions necessitate such a humongous increase!!!

Something is just not right. SIPRI says that Singapore has become one of the world’s top 10 arms buyers, according to the Swedish think tank. China tops the list followed by India, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Greece, Israel, Singapore, America, Algeria and Pakistan

BUT

Singapore’s arms imports had leapt by 146 per cent whereas Malaysia’s arms import increased by 722 per cent.

I can understand why the tiny red dot is in the top 10 arms purchasers. For Malaysia, where is the threat???