Although the moderator of the special interview, former journalist and currently Deputy Vice- Chancellor (Student Affairs) Universiti Malaya, Dr. Firdaus Abdullah started the hour-long session stating that the main subject of the discussion would be the arms robbery incident at Camp 304, Territorial Army Battalion, Grik and the brutality of the robbers at Bukit Jenalik, Sauk, neither he nor the two journalist- panellists, Editor-in-Chief of the Utusan Melayu Group and TV3 Senior General Manager (News and Current Affairs) Chamil Wariya asked a single question about the arms heists in the two Grik military camps.
The television interview was unbalanced for the Prime Minister and the panellists showed no interest whatsoever as to how a ragtag Al-Ma’unah gang of 15 people led by what the Inspector-General of Police had described as a 29-year-old "mentally-unstable", ex-army private could empty two high-security armouries of vast cache of high-calibre weapons, including some 100 M-16 rifles, heavy and light machine guns, grenade launchers, high-exposive shells and thousands rounds of ammunition or what would have happened if such fearsome firepower, enough to equip a small army and to start a war, had fallen into the hands of professionally-trained people rather than into the hands of the Al-Ma’unah gang most of whose members had not held a gun before and did not know how to make use of the huge stash of weapons.
The initial righteous indignation of the mainstream media, which carried stinging editorials lambasting the military authorities and the Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and demanding "transparent and comprehensive" accountability for the embarrassing and "spine-chilling" security breaches seem to have all been dissipated. In its stead, the mainstream media chiefs have fallen into line to pursue the Barisan Nasional agenda to politicise the Al-Ma’unah arms heists to attack the Barisan Alternative, particularly PAS.
The public reaction to Mahathir’s special interview is one of great
disappointment, both at its unfairness to the Opposition and over
the missed opportunities by the moderator and the panellists to elicit
answers from the Prime Minister to so many questions uppermost in the minds
of most Malaysians since the arms heists on July 2, such as:
If the Barisan Nasional government does not want a national debate on the Al-Ma’unah arms heists and killings until the preparation and publication of the White Paper, then Mahathir should not have gone on television for such a self-serving special interview on the subject. If the government wants a public discussion on the Al-Ma’unah arms heists and killings, and rightly so as there can be no reason to put a public debate on such an important subject on hold, then Parliament should be the first and most important forum for such a debate!
The most important question the moderator and panellists should have asked Mahathir at the special interview yesterday was whether the Barisan Nasional government was capable of rising above party politics to create a new basis to re-unite Malaysians to ensure solidarity not only within the Muslim community but also between the non-Muslims and Muslims for the common welfare of all Malaysian citizens.
But none of them raised the initiative and invitation by the Barisan
Alternative to the Barisan Nasional to a roundtable conference to
transcend party politics and to take a non-partisan national approach to
deal with the aftermath of the Al-Ma’unah arms heists.
The moderator and the panellists also do not seem to have the independence
of mind to ask the Prime Minister why two army boards of inquiry had been
set up when there should be an independent inquiry involving members from
outside the armed services to conduct a wide-ranging and comprehensive
investigation not only into the security but also the political and nation-building
dimensions of the Al-Ma’unah arms heists.
The allegation by Mahathir that the opposition was trying to absolve or whitewash the Al-Ma'unah group of the criminal act of staging the Grik arms heist and the Sauk hostage killings by charging that it was the government's own doing cannot be allowed to remain unchallenged.
Mahathir should name the opposition political parties and the political leaders he is accusing of making attempts to "whitewash or absolve the crime by those involved directly or indirectly and to evoke sympathy for the criminals", producing credible evidence to allow for full rebuttal, or he should refrain from such irresponsible politicking.
In the interview, asked whether it was true that "there were several members of this group who escaped, and are currently in Kuala Lumpur and in the process of causing trouble", Mahathir said a group of between three to five Al-Ma’unah people carried a M16 rocket launcher out of Sauk.
He said:
"They took this M16 out and there were also reports they shot at a temple and a Carlsberg brewery, but they did not know how to use the weapon effectively.
"So nothing happened, and the Government admits that we did not report this matter until now because we did not want the people to be worried while we were handling the problem."
Asked whether all had been caught, Mahathir said:
Malaysians must find the irresponsible manner in which Mahathir gave
information about the Al-Ma’unah arms heists most disturbing. In
the first place,17 days after the arms heists, the Prime Minister
should not be indulging in speculative talk about "reports"
that Al-Ma’unah members shot a M16 rocket launcher at a temple and
a Carlsberg brewery in Kuala Lumpur, but solid and confirmed information
as to whether there were such incidents or not. Otherwise, the Prime Minister
would be no different from other rumour-mongerers over the Al-Ma’unah
arms heists.
Since Mahathir had referred to such "reports", the authorities
concerned should release the full information about them.
Furthermore, if it was true that a group of between three to five Al-Ma’unah people carried a M16 rocket launcher out of Sauk and shot at a temple and a Carlsberg brewery in Kuala Lumpur, and they were later arrested in Sungai Petani, the authorities should explain how this Al-Ma’unah group managed to escape the tight security dragnet that was imposed immediately after the Grik arms heists, allowing them not only to get down all the way to the Federal Capital but to return to Sungai Petani with the M16 rocket launcher before they were arrested.
The Barisan Nasional government should not dole out information whether about the Al-Ma’unah arms heists or other important public events whenever it suits its political agenda, but must respect the right to know and the right to information of Malaysians if we are serious in wanting the country to enter the information age.
Finally, there are two queries about Mahathir’s special television interview last night – why should the University of Malaya’s Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student Affafirs) be involved in such an unbalanced partisan programme and why there was no multi-racial and multi-religious composition in the panel.
(20/7/2000)