Pua willing to face fire for OPV queries
By Clara Chooi, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 — DAP’s Tony Pua today said he was prepared to risk being sued for questioning the Defence Ministry’s RM6 billion offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) purchase, insisting the government responded to his queries.
“I am ready for any legal action by the Royal Malaysian Navy but the Minister of Defence must still explain the RM6 billion patrol vessel purchase,” he said in a statement today.
The Petaling Jaya Utara MP continued to argue that the purchase was likely extravagant as Malaysia was presently not in anticipation of any serious threat by sea and did not need six such state-of-the-art vessels for security reasons.
He pointed out that navy admiral Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar had said the ships were very powerful and heavily-equipped, capable of taking part in surface-to-air, surface-to-surface and anti-submarine warfare in the class of “littoral combat ships (LCS)”.
Presently, he added, there were only two LCS in operation around the world — the USS Independence and the USS Freedom, both in the US.
“While the US, which faces threats and fights wars in all parts of the world is cutting back on defence spending, owns only two LCS, Malaysia has chosen to spend RM6 billion to build six LCS in a region not anticipated to be facing threats or confrontation for a foreseeable future,” he said.
Pua claimed that due to budget constraints in the US, its Navy had to undergo months of negotiations with the US Congress in the House of Representatives and the Senate, before finally securing an approval to order the two ships in 2010, another two this year and more subsequently from two world-class military defence companies, Lockheed Martin and Austal.
“Assuming that Boustead is indeed supplying six LCS for the Malaysian Navy which is worth an average of RM1 billion each, the Minister of Defence will still have to answer as to the rationale behind such extravagant purchases for our security needs,” he said.
He noted that the proposed spending for the six ships came at an inopportune time, when the government was struggling to contain its budget deficit and a ballooning debt bill of some RM406 billion.
“And they have imposed austerity measures by cutting subsidies and increasing taxes of basic goods and services.
“The government needs to practise what it preaches in the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and New Economic Model (NEM), which called for accountable and transparent procurement practices,” he said.
Pua also pledged to press ahead with the issue despite facing the threat of a lawsuit, saying it was his duty as a parliamentarian to question such hefty acquisitions made by the government.
“Malaysian citizens have a right to know what exactly we are getting for our money’s worth especially given the less than stellar track record of our Ministry of Defence which is engulfed in scandals after scandals over the past decade, including the purchase of six offshore patrol vessels for RM5.35 billion in 2000 which was not only delayed for nearly two years, but had a major cost overrun of 26.2 per cent or RM1.4 billion, costing the people a total of RM6.75 billion,” he said.
He added that when Defence Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi announced the order for the six ships, the latter had not provided any details on the purchase.
“Given the size and scale of the expenditure with the taxpayers’ money, it is imperative for an MP to demand details.
“This is especially so in the light of the fact that there are different types of patrol vessels between RM100 million to RM1 billion or more,” he said.
