Is Najib prepared to take an oath that he has nothing to do with the RM9 billion littoral combatant ship (LCS) scandal?
Former Prime Minister Najib Razak has lapsed into silence on the RM9 billion littoral combatant ship (LCS) scandal after he realised that he had made a strategic mistake by being in the forefront in the first week the Public Accounts Committee report on the LCS scandal was tabled in Parliament on August 4, 2022.
He was even more outspoken than the current Defence Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein and the Defence Minister when the disastrous RM9 billion LCS procurement was decided upon in 2011 – Ahmad Zahid Hamidi the current UMNO President.
Najib’s challenge the previous Saturday to those who blamed him for the failed LCS procurement to show proof that he interfered with the ships’ design has ended like a damp squib as more information on the RM9 billion LCS scandal in the last few days have shown that the history of the LS procurement went as far back as 2007 when Najib was himself the Defence Minister and reinforced the perception that the most powerful decision-maker in the LCS procurement was Najib himself as Najib became Prime Minister and Finance Minister in April 2009, and not Zahid whom Najib appointed Defence Minister in the first Najib cabinet.
Is Najib prepared to take an oath that he has nothing to do with the RM9 billion LCS scandal?
Does he now believe that that the oath system is more reliable, certain and effective than the judicial system to ensure justice and to fight corruption in the country?
Is he going to close down all the law faculties in all the universities in the country?
Najib had blamed the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government which was illegally, undemocratically and unconstitutionally toppled by the Sheraton Move political conspiracy in February 2020 and which had produced two governments which had together served longer than 22 months.
Why didn’t Najib blame these two governments for the LCS procurement “delay”?
Can Najib give examples where in the world there are governments which can deliver in 22 months what they promised to do in a five-year mandate to fulfil their election manifesto?
Why Najib has no faith in a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the RM9 billion LCS scandal – that it could demonstrate that he, as Prime Minister and Finance Minister, had nothing to do with the RM9 billion LCS procurement scandal, and that it was solely the responsibility of his Defence Minister in the first Najib premiership, Zahid Hamidi?
Why is Najib opposed to the establishment of RCI on the LCS scandal, although this is a solution which UMNO Youth has joined other political parties and organisations to support and advocate?
Why Najib has no faith that the RCI would show that he was not to blame for the RM9 billion LCS scandal although he established a RCI into the forex scandal in the early 90s to pin the blame on Mahathir Mohamad?
Why have UMNO leaders lapsed into silence on the RM9 billion LCS scandal?
I had asked Zahid Hamidi why as Defence Minister in 2011, he had overturned his earlier decision to procure the Sigma LCS design as recommended by the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) and why he unilaterally and arbitrarily change it to the Gowind LCS design without consulting the end-user, the RMN, and in fact despite the RMN’s strong objections?
There was thunderous silence from Zahid. I can understand the reason why as Zahid would have to blame Najib, the then Prime Minister and Finance Minister!
The UMNO information chief Shahril Hamdan has made a very interesting video statement on his Facebook, where he listed corruption cases involving several government agencies or GLCs to prove that corrupt people in high places are not always politicians,.
He said it is a “wrong assumption that misappropriation, mismanagement, and the like must involve an instruction from ‘sharks’ who must be a minister or prime minister”.
UMNO Youth should stop prevaricating. The single pertinent question in the RM9 billion LCS scandal is whether Najib is the “biggest shark:” in the LCS scandal?
The current Defence Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, should not also downplay the LCS scandal, saying that it’s a “seasonal issue” as the 15th General Election is around the corner – which is a shocking though unconscious admission of the prevalence of widespread corruption, breach of trust and abuse of power in defence procurements which explain why Malaysia is ranked very low in the Transparency International’s Global Defence Integrity (GDI) index.
His father, the third Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn, would never have taken such a flippant attitude.
Hishammuddin had said: “At this time, all kinds of things will be brought up. I have no problem to answer (on the issue), even if we are innocent sometimes. If we are guilty, we have to be accountable”..
Hishammuddin sounded very defensive.
He should keep to his promise to set up a RCI into the LCS scandal as well as his other promises with regard to the RM9 billion LCS scandal.
He told the Dewan Negara that the government will report the schedule and progress of the littoral combat ship (LCS) construction project in stages.
He said his ministry was given six months to mobilise efforts to revive the project, and he believed the first ship would be delivered to the Royal Malaysian Navy within two years.
Hishammuddin should realise that when Parliament resumes on Oct. 26, 2022 – with the 2023 Budget set for the Dewan Rakyat sitting on Oct. 28 – his six-month deadline would have expired as the Cabinet that gave him the deadline met on April 20, 2022.
Hishammuddin should present a report on his mobilisation efforts to revive the LCS project as the first item of parliamentary business when the Dewan Rakyat resumes on Oct. 26, 2022, followed by a full debate on the issue in Parliament.