How deep and widespread is the rot in the armed forces? Or it is just another day in boleh-land?

OPINION | How deep and widespread is the rot in the armed forces? Or it is just another day in boleh-land?


31 Dec 2025 • 10:00 AM MYT


FLK
Used to do a bit of work in corporate restructuring, corporate undertaker

Bloomberg.com https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-28/malaysia-army-chief-placed-on-leave-amid-investigation-bernama


`Army chief put on leave pending corruption probe’ – the headline in an online news portal is truly unsettling and shocking to many.


For this, the country has to thank Badrul Hisham Shaharin, also known as Chegubard, who exposed this issue publicly.


Reportedly, the MACC started its investigation in Dec 2025 and found that from 2023 to 2025, there were 158 army procurement projects that exceeded RM500,000 and 4,521 projects below RM500,000 with several companies frequently awarded high-value contracts.


This Army Chief was appointed to the post only in September 2023 and before, he was the deputy between April and September 2023.


Based on the timeline investigated by MACC, it appears that it covers the period that includes the time when he was the Deputy Chief also.


What about the period before that when he was the Chief of Staff at the 3rd Malaysian Infantry Division HQ from 2016 to 2017, then Commander of the 5th Malaysian Infantry Brigade from 2018 to 2020 and Commander of the Western Field from 2021 to 2023?


Did the rot start from that time?


Can’t imagine how much he would have received and robbed the soldiers of better welfare if he was not investigated and continued for a further 5 years in his role until his mandatory retirement age of 60?


In Aug 2025, it was reported that military personnel apparently leaked operational intelligence to smugglers, facilitating the entry of contraband, including drugs, cigarettes, and various goods from neighbouring countries valued at approximately RM5 million per month into Malaysia.


The officers arrested by MACC reportedly are all from the Malaysian Armed Forces’ intelligence division.


In June 2020, 2 officers and 3 ATM personnel together with 18 policemen and civilians were arrested as part of a human smuggling syndicate in Johor.


When a top military official sells intelligence, it poses grave and far-reaching threats to national security, endangers lives and severely damages a country's relationships with allies. Such acts are considered a profound betrayal and carries severe legal penalties, including life imprisonment or even the death penalty.


This latest corrupt act that permeates even those put in charge of securing the nation, revealed right after the judgment handed down by the Courts on PM6 in the 1MDB case, shows corruption is really deeply entrenched at all levels of government.


When one diseased head is cut off, a new one emerged.


From top to bottom, right to left, front to back, you named it, which department is 100% clean?


In this case, for sure it is not the job of a single person.


His subordinates and suppliers are definitely involved.


What saddens the ordinary rakyat is that it appears corruption in Malaysia are not a series of isolated scandals.


It appears that it has become so deeply entrenched in the political and economic fabric of this country.


It cuts across race and religion.


From banking scandals to the global embarrassment of 1MDB, the pattern is clear. Corruption is not the exception but the norm, woven into the DNA of governance and business alike in this country.


Getting rid of corruption in the country is like trying to eliminate mosquitoes in its forests.


How many can they arrest when everyone from top to bottom is corrupted?


Removing one corrupt leader only allows another to rise in their place.


Does PMX has the political will and resolve to break this cycle?