Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Who defends the nation when defence is corrupt? By Mariam Mokhtar
Sunday, January 25, 2026
Malaysiakini : Every ringgit lost to corruption is money not spent on training, maintenance, or operational combat readiness.
Billions
of ringgits have flowed into projects that were overpriced, delayed, or
poorly executed. Ships arrive late or not at all. Systems underperform.
Readiness suffers. Money disappears.
However, the deepest damage is not material. It is trust.
When
defence contracts are hidden from scrutiny, when investigations drag on
for decades, and accountability remains elusive, the message to the
public is unmistakable - political elites appear insulated, while the
public pays the price.
When leaders speak of zero tolerance without enforcing consequences, citizens stop believing the system is fair.
Top brass implicated
In
late 2025, MACC launched a sweeping investigation into alleged bribery
linked to army procurement contracts, prompting raids on several
companies and the freezing of six bank accounts belonging to suspects
and family members.
The army chief at the time was placed on leave, officially to avoid a conflict of interest, pending investigations.
However,
we are aware of other major defence projects which continue to falter,
like the littoral combat ships (LCS) project has suffered repeated cost
overruns and delays.
No ship has been delivered despite billions of ringgits in payment, and delivery schedules got repeatedly revised.
Recently, the seriousness of these concerns surfaced. A former army chief and one of his wives were charged in court with money‑laundering offences involving more than RM2 million in alleged illicit funds.
Hafizuddeain Jantan
Both pleaded not guilty, and the cases remain before the courts.
The
charges themselves, which were brought under anti‑money‑laundering
laws, underscore the scale of the probe and the level of concern within
enforcement agencies.
They also confirm what many Malaysians have
long suspected: procurement corruption is not a minor issue confined to
low‑level actors.
Freezing bank accounts, staging raids, and
placing officials on leave may generate headlines but Malaysians want
more than process. They want outcomes. They want accountability.
Sytemic failure
The
rakyat is aware that this is not a bureaucratic hiccup. It is a
systemic failure. The root of the problem is that defence‑related
corruption in Malaysia did not begin in the last few years.
Parliamentary
special select committee investigations and public statements by former
defence minister Mohamad Sabu in 2019 highlighted questionable land swap deals involving ministry’s land, stretching back decades, with estimated losses in excess of RM500 million.
These
deals involved 16 projects covering thousands of hectares of land and
billions of ringgits in value, yet many details of the investigations
remain classified.
When investigations span decades,
administrations, and political parties, but few concrete prosecutions
emerge, then it is no longer credible to dismiss them as isolated
incidents.
The pattern points instead to weak enforcement, institutional reluctance, and political insulation from consequences.
Scorpene scandal
A
case in point is the Scorpene submarine procurement which was once
promoted as a landmark strategic acquisition. Instead, it has become a
lasting symbol of unresolved controversy.
French prosecutors alleged misappropriation of hundreds of millions of euros linked to support contracts, and MACC investigations into related transactions have continued.
Former
leaders have denied wrongdoing. No local convictions followed. If a
defence procurement scandal from more than 20 years ago remains
unresolved, Malaysians are entitled to ask how today’s system can be
trusted to function any better.
These cases are not random. They
reveal a recurring pattern involving the following: procurement
decisions made with limited transparency and frequent reliance on direct
negotiation, political oversight that tolerated, or perhaps enabled
questionable approvals across successive governments, and investigations
that begin years later, when evidence has faded and public attention
has waned.
This is not bad luck. It is not inefficiency. It
reflects a culture of permissiveness, weak oversight, and excessive
secrecy, particularly in financial matters where secrecy is least
justified.
National security requires operational secrecy. It does not require financial opacity.
The
rakyat is not satisfied with the actions taken thus far. Freezing
accounts is not enough. Raiding companies is not enough. Placing
suspects on leave is not enough. Reopening old investigations is not
enough.
These actions create activity, not justice.
What Malaysians deserve are the following:
Full disclosure of defence procurement contracts, with secrecy limited strictly to genuine operational needs.
Independent parliamentary oversight that is not beholden to the executive.
Clear, timely outcomes from anti‑corruption investigations.
An end to routine procurement exemptions that bypass open competition.
Strong, enforceable whistleblower protections.
Without these reforms, transparency remains cosmetic.
Decades of inaction
Malaysia’s
defence integrity crisis did not begin today. It began decades ago, and
it persisted because complacency was allowed to replace accountability.
What has changed is public awareness and our patience.
Malaysians
are no longer willing to accept reassurances while scandals resurface
again and again. For too long, corruption in defence has been treated as
a management issue rather than what it truly is: a national emergency.
The armed forces are entrusted with defending the nation. Corruption within weakens them from the inside.
And Malaysians should not merely hope for accountability. They should demand it.
