Who have we sold our country’s defence to?

My letter to Malaysiakini (based on an earlier post but written in more civil language, wakakaka) printed today, as follows:

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Since the news of Malaysia signing several multi-billion ringgit deals with China broke out, especially on our purchase of four Chinese made littoral mission ships, there have been relentless vilifications directed at PM Najib Abdul Razak for purportedly selling the country or the country's security to China.

We have been informed by many outraged readers of online media that PM Najib has obsequiously fawned on China, and I am being polite here as the readers’ comments have reeked with vulgar obscenities, directed at both Najib and China.

I am aware Najib has long since lost quite a lot of support, as expressed on the Malaysian Internet, so whatever he has done, do or will be doing, he will be criticised and condemned by those people no matter how much those actions might have benefited Malaysia.

But then have those criticisms been fair to China, even as a form of collateral damage by the readers over-enthusiastic attacks on PM Najib.

Thus, my query is about the voluminous comments of hatred, not just comments or criticisms, read on interactive media: were those directed specifically against China or have they been only against Najib, or both.

I am inclined to believe that the badmouthing have been specifically directed against Najib mainly by Pakatan supporters, now more accentuated with former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad leading the pack of attack hounds or ‘sausages’ (loud maniacal laughter).

And those diatribes would only be against China to the extent some Malaysians believe the foreign nation has ‘interfered’ to financially saved Najib’s skin.

It seems strange that many of the critics against alleged Chinese abetment of Najib’s political longevity are Chinese Malaysians, perhaps in the same way as many Malays had viewed the walkabout by the Chinese ambassador in Petaling Street during a previous mooncake festival as equally interfering in Malaysian domestic affairs

And I said ‘strange’ for Chinese Malaysians to be criticising China because some decades ago, when Malaysia was wandering around listlessly in the doldrums of badminton sports, and we were merely providing audiences for badminton matches between China and Indonesia in Kuala Lumpur, Chinese Malaysians frequently irritated Malay Malaysians by vociferous support for the Chinese team while Malay Malaysians supported the Indonesian players.

Both accused each other of being disloyal to Malaysia, but with both failing abysmally to realize that without Malaysian players in the matches, what loyalty would we be talking about? Why should we be loyal to either China or Indonesia? It’s not unlike some of us supporting Germany or Brazil or even England during the World Fifa Cup competitions.

So, things have changed since, with Chinese Malaysians being against Malaysia buying Chinese naval shops while Umno Malays are doing exactly the opposite. Perhaps it’s a refreshing change.

Armaments from around the world

But in this case, that of Malaysia purchasing Chinese naval ships, why should any Malaysians (be he/she a Chinese, Malay or Indian) object when Malaysia uses a plethora of armaments from around the world such as (just some examples):

• Sukhoi 30MKM and MIG-29 from Russia. Then Malaysians were divided into two groups on purchases of military planes from Russia: those who supported the then-PM on his wise lateral thinking on alternative sourcing of arms from the Eastern Bloc, and those who kept their mouth wisely shut for fear of being ‘Lalang-rised’

• F-18, F5E II, C130H and BBJ1 plus various light aircraft types from USA,

• Aermacchi MB-339 and Laksamana class corvettes from Italy,

• Alouette IIIs, Scorpene submarines, Euro EC helicopters and Dassault Falcon 900 from France,

• CN-235 from Spain/Indonesia,

• Hawk advanced trainers and Lekiu class frigates from Britain,

• PC-7 from Switzerland,

• Rifles from Germany and Belgium,

• Airbus A400M from EU consortium,

• Armoured combat vehicles (ACVs) from Turkey, Poland, Britain, Germany, South Korea, Belgium, etc,

• Artillery from Brazil, USA, South Africa, Italy, etc,

... and the list goes on and on.

So who have we sold our country’s defence to?