Defence Minister too impetuous in deploying military for MCO

MM Online:

Patriot says minister has no authority to deploy army, calls move ‘hasty and premature’

Patriot president Brig Jen (Rtd) Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji today said that Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob does not have the right to deploy the army and that the mobilisation initiative set for Sunday was premature

Picture by Yusof Mat Isa 

KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 20 — Patriot president Brig Jen (Rtd) Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji today said that Defence Minister Datuk Seri ismail Sabri Yaakob does not have the right to deploy the army and that the mobilisation initiative set for Sunday was premature.

“The defence minister must understand that he does not have the authority to deploy any unit of the armed forces or make any reference to such an act.

“The authority lies solely with the respective Service Chiefs through a consensus being discussed and agreed upon by the Service Chief’s Council Presided upon by the Chief Defence Force (CDF),” Mohamed Arshad said in a statement.

Arshad said the deployment of the army was hasty and premature and the police are capable of handling the situation.

He also chided the minister for being too keen to deploy the army without consulting his CDF which ended up with two contradictory statements with the CDF saying the army won’t be deployed while Ismail said it will.

“It appears that the defence minister is only too keen to deploy the military. Earlier when the CDF made the announcement that the military would not be deployed for the Movement Control Order (MCO), it was to stem fear and confusion among the masses, and to calm the mass paranoia of buying up household needs, and rightfully so,” said Mohamed Arshad.

The Malaysian Armed Forces will deploy on Sunday to assist civilian authorities in enforcing the MCO, Ismail said today.

On why the military was being deployed, he said the Health Ministry was authorised to request such support if needed using Section 5 of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988.

“On the government’s restrictive movement order, we believe the police, being the authority to effect the order, has sufficient resources to control and managed the order effectively.

“The more than 130,000 personnel, and particularly from the General Operational Force that are currently positioned in different parts of the country, can be deployed for such a task,” said Mohamed Arshad.

“Patriot is confident that the police will professionally execute the task given. After all it is barely three days that the MCO has been gazetted and the police must be allowed to execute their task. The defence minister must have full trust and confidence in the ability of our police force who are experienced enough in dealing with internal security issues.”

He, however, added that there is a more pressing need for proper and effective communication to the masses on the need to stay put and be disciplined about practising social distancing.

Brig Jen Arshad Raji is correct. But in practical (or realistic) terms, the CDF would be under enormous pressure from the Defence Minister (his political boss) to do what the minister says/wants. We are a nation with feudalistic mentality, hence the question of "Siapa Raja?" always prevails.

Indeed, the Brig Jen has been spot on in stressing that earlier on the CDF said the military would not be deployed for the Movement Control Order (MCO), and even went to the extent of saying troop movements including armoured vehicles had been a result of the cancellation of military exercises due to the MCO, and he said so to stem fear and confusion among the masses, and to calm the mass paranoia of buying up household needs.

Why the CDF was attempting to assure the public from panicking by stressing on non-military involvement in the MCO, the LowYat2 minister was vocally threatening to loosen the leashes of the military to control public movements.

While there is nothing wrong in using the military to backup the police in implementing effective MCO, that call-up (of the military to support the police) must be on the initiative of the police, and NOT by the Defence Minister.

But Sabri kept bleating on that threat to such an extent that both the IGP and the CDF had no choice but to toe the line so as not to embarrass the LowYat2 clown.

And as Liew Chin Tong (former deputy Defence Minister) said, the military should not be used only as patrols but more constructively. His take follows:

First, I am not part of this Government and I was not privy to the thinking process of the Minister so I don’t wish to defend the Minister.

Second, deploying the Army to assist the Police just like during a flood is not wrong. During flood we call the Armed Forces to assist. So I see no wrong in the deployment.

But it will be really unfortunate if the Government or our society at large thinks that what the Armed Forces could do is just patrolling. My key message is that as a government, as a society, and as a nation, especially in time of crisis, we need to know the full range of capabilities residing with our Armed Forces and deploy them most effectively.

We must now be prepared for the worst in order to have the best outcome in such crisis. We must be prepared for the possibility of facing a scenario similar to Italy in order to paradoxically avoid going that way. As we say in Malay, sediakan payung sebelum hujan.

The most important task that the Armed Forces as a whole, not just Army but also Navy and Air Force, must be asked to do is to “scenario plan” in the event Malaysia reaches 3,000 cases; 5,000 cases; 10,000 cases and beyond. By then the civilian authorities alone would not be able to cope.

For the rest of his article, please refer to his blog article On the involvement of the Malaysian Armed Forces.

It goes to show that Brig Jen Arshard Raji has been correct, seeing we have NOT yet arrived at such a calamitous stage. The military of course can plan for that but Arshard Raji is spot on in saying deploying the military now is far too premature. But how does one tell that to a clown who created LowYat2 as a vindictive but costly venture (to public money)?

Liew is one of the few DAP leaders I still have respect for. Although he became a 'backdoor' (wakakaka) senator in 2018 in order to become the deputy Defence Minister, after losing the Ayer Itam seat to Wee Ka Siong, and I have teased him for that 'backdoor'-ing, he is one of the few intellectuals in the Rocket Party who doesn't tok-kok.

Liew is the sort of person the DAP needs for its corp of future leadership, not vicious 'players' as we have witnessed in Perak and some parts of Selangor, or simpletons, wakakaka.