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| Southeast Asia |
| Malaysian Defense News |
| 2010-03-16 |
| Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today denied that the country's submarine is incapable of diving. Responding to a question from Penang Chief Minister and DAP leader Lim Guan Eng in the Dewan Rakyat, the minister explained that a minor fault has been rectified as the Scorpene submarines from France were still under guarantee. "It was not that the submarine could not dive. The minor fault has been rectified,' he was quoted as saying by Bernama. Ahmad Zahid also invited Lim to go on a dive in the submarine in order to clear his doubts. Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid also revealed that a paper on the investigation conducted by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the disappearance of the two F5-E fighter jet engines is to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat this month. He said that besides the PAC, the case of the missing engines was also investigated by the police. Lim had asked the minister to state the outcome of an internal inquiry as well as investigations conducted by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police on the two missing engines which were traced to Uruguay. Ahmad Zahid said the case involved theft by low-ranking personnel without the knowledge and involvement of any senior officer of the Defence Ministry. "A report on the missing engines was made to the police in August 2008, within seven months from the date their disappearance was known, and not 18 months later as claimed by (the member of Parliament for) Ipoh Timur (Lim Kit Siang of DAP)," he said. The disappearance of the engines was known four months later and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) conducted an internal inquiry, which took three months, before the police report was made, he said. Zahid attributed the factors contributing to the disappearance of the engines to the negligence of several individuals and the security regulations in force as well as the implementation of a computer system upgrading by the RMAF at that time. Ahmad Zahid said the RMAF had stepped up the security measures and ensured that all security directives and procedures were streamlined in the effort to overcome weaknesses and prevent a recurrence of the incident. He said the disappearance of the engines did not at all affect the capability of the RMAF in discharging its responsibilities because the F5-E fighter jets were not frontline assault aircraft. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #1 Oh, it'll dive...once. |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-03-16 23:56 |