Posted on by Kit

Have the two missing RM100 million F5 fighter jet engines ended up as scrap metal or sinkers for fishing? All the more why there must be a Royal Commission of Inquiry into rampant kleptocracy in Malaysia

The explanation by the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail on the two missing RM100 million F5 fighter engines have raised public incredulity and outrage to new heights, spawning even more questions, including:

Firstly, why have the police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers taken such an inordinately long time of over 16 months in the investigations into the two J85-GE-21 engines, which power the F5 fighters, which had been stolen from two RMAF facilities while some components from the same planes were also unaccounted for?

All that Gani can say now is that police had completed its investigations “to a large extent” and that he would announce “very soon” the decision on the next course of action against those involved in the thefts.

This is totally unsatisfactory as according to police investigations, the engines were taken out of the RMAF base on Dec 20, 2007 and Jan 1, 2008, and sent to a premises in Subang Jaya.

The military only realised that the engines were missing on May 22 of that year and launched an investigation, and the base’s chief Major Zulfikli Ayub later lodged a report at the Brickfields police station on Aug 4.

Secondly, have the two missing RM100 million F5 fighter jet engines ended up as scrap metal or sinkers for fishing?

Gani stressed that he was being sarcastic as “I really do not know what is being done to it now, whether the engines are used as scrap metal or as sinker for fishing.” (Star)

But such unintended sarcasm is at the expense of the Mindef, Police and the AG himself!

Thirdly, what is the use or worth of Gani’s “vow” to bring back the two stolen jet engines when the government does not know where they are, what they have become or has not been able to bring to book the culprits responsible?

Fourthly, has kleptocracy (a government characterized by rampant greed and corruption) become so rampant that mere “rank and file” can walk away with two RM100 million jet engines from top-security areas without the involvement “senior military personnel” in the scandal?

This is the implication when Gani said that no senior military personnel was involved in the scandal, only those from the “rank and file”.

If so, this is all the more justification why there must be a Royal Commission of Inquiry into rampant government kleptocracy in Malaysia.

The questions posed by a visitor to my blog warrants response by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, himself as he was the Defence Minister as the operative time of the theft of the two jet engines and also because of all his sloganeering about KPIs, NKRAs and most of all, “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now”:

“What kind of outfit are they operating if rank and file could steal and cart two RMAF F5-E jet engines out with impunity???

“If security were so lax in a military base what is there to prevent enemies of the state from securing corrupt rank and file for access to plant bombs in the jet planes at the base in sabotage of the nation’s defence system? Isn’t this a case of criminal negligence of higher ups to allow security breach of such nature to occur in extreme threat to national interest?

“If the theft occurred in 2007 you mean that they need to take over 2 years to discover this? Does that not mean that in these two years no pilot test-fly the jet plans and no maintenance people maintain these planes for all the two years for otherwise the theft would surely have been earlier discovered?

“If thats the way they neglect the planes that are supposed to defend the country’s territorial integrity – what hope is there for a proper defence of the country’s national security? And why should so much of the Public Expenditures/Taxes go to pay for these defence systems if there were no proper inventory controls?

“Worse still if higher ups were in complicity for a sting of such daring proportion and scale to be carried out.

“If it were so easy to take out military hardware from a secure base due to lack of inventory controls what is there to stop the hardware being highjacked at source even before it arrives at the secure military base???

“For example if we buy planes or submarines from a foreign country what is there to stop the so called low ranking rank and file from selling them to another third country and arrange for these planes and submarines from going direct from the first mentioned to the third country direct whilst the inventory over here registers that they (planes and submarines) have arrived at the base here when in fact they have not? Have you seen the military arms-in-being when they arrive here? Can we check inventory records ? No – because of Official Secrets Act.

“So if rank and file can pull a stunt of such magnitude what is there to stop a total hijack and detour (at source) if ever (hypothetically) some higher up general or brigadier were ever involved in complicity in such a bold sting???

“I am just extrapolating the situation as logically will result based on such a ridiculous situation of jet engines being in the position to be stolen by rank and file!”

45 Replies to “Have the two missing RM100 million F5 fighter jet engines ended up as scrap metal or sinkers for fishing? All the more why there must be a Royal Commission of Inquiry into rampant kleptocracy in Malaysia”

  1. Fourthly, has kleptocracy (a government characterized by rampant greed and corruption) become so rampant that mere “rank and file” can walk away with two RM100 million jet engines from top-security areas without the involvement “senior military personnel” in the scandal?
    ======================================================

    It is hard to believe that mere “rank and file” can walk away with two RM100 million jet engines from top-security areas without the involvement “senior military personnel” in the scandal.

    Transporting the two engines to other places would be expensive. How could the military finance department so willingly yield to the request of the “rank and file” to foot the bill?

  3. These so-called rank and file military personnel must have ‘super-brains’ to have successfully plan the two F5 fighter engines to go missing without the top notchers knowing at all!

    What a joke? You just tell me!

  5. That stupid AG wants us to think its only 2 bottles of peanut butter stolen by some rank & file officers & so no big deal.
    Where is our home minister who is supposed to ensure our national security? 2 LARGE jet engines for fighter jets can just simply go missing so easily stolen by some rank & file officers. How can he take this silently???????

  9. Hey, our rank n file worked with bomoh 2 shrink d engines, put them in their pockets
    Walked out of d air base, eBayed them, n posted them off 2 south america
    Pandai 1, smarter n hv more entrepreneur skills than our ministers
    Should make them PM n cabinet members
    Or recruit them as 007 agents 2 steal fighter engines fr other countries 4 1M’sia

  11. Our Ghani thought that by blaming the lower ranking officers, he can also lower the ranking of the crime.But he forgot he will get a bigger blow on his face because it is now a crime that leads all the way up from bottom to top. There is no way the top can be absolved from the criminal act as they are also held accountable. This system of management is practiced worldwide and Malaysia is no exception.
    If only this crime is committed by the top , then at least the buck stops there. You cannot blame the bottom when the top commits the crime, but not the other way round. Maybe Ghani is so engrossed to save UMNO from embarrassment that he forgot the good universal system of management. I hope he can wake up to reality and not just thinking of only how to servre UMNO better.

  12. These rank-and-file personnel must be commended. They managed to sneak out 2 engines, each probably weighing half a ton, from a military base to a safehouse in subang jaya. Each engine if securely packed would be at least 50 cubic feet. They were not seen. Then they managed to find international buyers, produced export documents, negotiated shipping contracts, opened offshore bank accounts.

    These people should be given medals and given senior positions in GLCs. Or given promotions to senior positions in the military. Resourcefulness is something that should be encouraged.

  14. The rank-and-file personnel must somehow include the likes of Victor Lustig and Andre Poisson.

    Watch it, soon Parliament would have to, ala-Perak DUN, sit under a raintree next to Lake Club because these unsavoury unbeknownst could operate up to that level and GADAI this hot, but I’m not sure about it being august, but definitely BOCOR House.

  16. The TUDM is situated next to a huge cemetery. It is a place where all types of ghosts are wandering around the base. My theory is that a group of ghosts decided to steal the two jet engines to fit on another two jets that were stolen earlier so that they could fly back to their creator in another world.

    Now the problem with the TUDM is that there is a theft and they did not know where items have evaporated to. They would look silly if they point their fingers at their neighbours next door. So the next plausible thing to do is to pick four people, give each one million ringgit and assure them that the prosecution would bungle the case and have it thrown out for lack of evidence. Or plan B: allow these scapegoats have their faces covered up during the trial so that nobody would know who they were. Since nobody know who they actually are, they would be quietly be released from prison and nobody would be the wiser.

    For the Altantunya case, the two convicted murderers, for all I know, would not be in prison now. When the time come for their execution, maybe two drug addicts would be hanged in their places.

  17. Strangely, there is a big gap in the timeline on this matter. It was reported the theft was discovered in 2007 but the revelation of this event was made in 2009 , some 2 years later. The media spinned again with their headlines – NO COVER UP . this is pathetic as it is often quoted as : you can fool some one sometimes but not all the time. I think Malaysians woke up on MARCH 2008 and they are smarter now and not so easily hoodwinked . Only rank and file officers involved. We will recover the engines. HOw and in what form – maybe just take some scrap metal and say this is the engines from MARS. Our authorities cannot pinpoint where are the engines? So how it is possible for them to say stupid things like – we are going to recover the engines- from the moon. Sadly this pattern of spinning, plundering and destroying key institutions started in 1981 . it is a consistent pattern since then but gotten worse. Just reading the annual Auditors General report yearly will make one throw out. It highlight the cost overrun by millions, mismanagement and non compliance to procurement procedures. Yet year in and year out, this pattern of abuse is reported but little or no action is taken. This is the real Malaysia. The economy contracted by some 2% in 2009 (minus 2% ) Our national debt is RM 414 billion ( source ; economic reports ) and is expected to rise further. Yet all these issues of national importance are seldom articulated in the media thanks to our great subservient journalists. Where are all the journalistic values and principals such as reporting without fear or favor? So Malaysians we must be bold and forward looking to make changes and be agents of change for a better Malaysia. Arise and start now before it is too late in the day.

  18. Najib puppet is caught in a dilemma…to reveal or not to reveal.
    PM also do not know what to do.
    Reveal….so many UMNO machais kina jail.
    Not to reveal….UMNO sure loose few hundred votes.
    To reveal….may backfire…..more that previous Min. Of Defence knew everything…but kept quiet ..all these years.
    Who was Min. Of Defence?
    You see…crooks are in such deep hot soup…no need Comedy Play to entertain us.
    Sit back and relax…enjoy the fun.
    Do not forget..a truck load of M16..machine guns…pistols and rifles with lots of ammunition…all stolen.
    Good news!!…All recovered….but where are the guys who stole them? What happen?
    Remember…if anyone.. found with a gun and life bullets….he will be hanged to death…..like certain amount of dadah.
    You see….government servants will steal…if there are chances to steal….and why not.
    Mahathir stole billions. Najib had RM500 million commission on one deal..why can’t all steal like them?
    Mahathir dare not faark police and military crooks….but Toyol..kina like hell.because he was suppose to be small fish….stole and became a big fish…to be protected by small fishes.
    Gang of robbers and thieves…the big fishes…lost control now.
    It is a matter of time….small fishes cannot tahan…and reveal all….if more and more small fishes suffer.while the big fishes…keep talking kok and bull.

  19. Where did bank and gold smith robbers get their most up to date weapons from?
    You believe all weapons fully accounted for and recovered?
    You believe every word spoken by the government are gospel truth?
    62% support UMNO…so said Najib….yet he keep on dragging with no shame…an UMNO PM..not an elected one.
    Najib is the worst of all PMs…plenty of useless slogans..no power…even in UMNO…BUT…..anything he says or does…to give advantage to UMNO..to win election…all will support.
    “1Malaysia” “People First. Performance Now”….my foot..only good to fool school children…to drag on his so call PM status…never elected…by Malaysians…with no shame.

  20. Well, your visitor’s comments vividly drive home the spectre of a nightmare scenario. If such an establishment can be that lackadaisical to be duped allegedly by minions with such ease then what magnitude of catastropy awaits us if any or several of public instititutions are taken for a ride by the upper echelons. It could even be worse if this extrapolates to the point of subversion.

  22. In any establishment or organisation, when something major goes wrong, the top or the chief has to take total responsibility even though the mistake or wrongdoing is someone below him. He is paid the highest to shoulder the highest responsibility. He cannot blame it on his subordinates when things happen. He is still answerable. If not, why pay him so much and he can blame on others.

  26. 1Malaysia, land of glory
    Semen-stained mattress, now u C it, now u don’t
    InventQjaya, now u C it, now u don’t
    Immigration record, now u C it, now u don’t
    C4, now u C it, now u don’t
    Perak democracy tree, now u C it, now u don’t
    Jet fighter engines, now u C it, now u don’t
    A llah g od, now u C it, now u don’t

  27. Read in Malaysiakini that a Sargent will be charged for the theft of the jet engines. Firstly, this Sargent must be very rich now. In Bolehland, if you still something from the Govt, you get to keep the money. Secondly, how in the hell can the Sargent get hold of the technical manual which is kept in a safe? The Sargent maybe charged for the crime, but the Major is accountable for the safety of all the equipments in the base. So how come this Major is not charged at all? The best approach is to follow the money trail. Then you will know who are involved. This is a huge sum of money. Someone’s bank account is loaded. If the Sargent is still staying in a small house and doesn’t own any luxury cars, then where is the money? All these armed forces men should be charged for treason & not stealing. They should be shot if found guilty.

  28. it appears that the government/Mindef intended to cover up the theft, hence no action had been taken since the theft in 2007.. but since the media had exposed it, they had no choice but to quickly find some scapegoats to take the blame and quickly asked the police to “investigate” and to come out with some explanations which only the simple minded ones will readily accept and believe.

    is it such a perfect coincidence that once the stories were exposed in the media, the police is at the point of completing their “investigation”? from the media, it appears that the police only started their “investigation” after police report had been made and the police report was made after the media exposed the theft.

    if the police can finished their “investigation” in such a short period of time, they must be very capable in solving crime yet this not been reflected in our daily life as our streets are no longer safe.

  29. The Sargent must be a millionaire..BEFORE the stealing starts…and should have traveled far and wide with all sorts on connections…to be the mastermind.
    He must also be very smart..and gain respect and trusts…even by a general…to be the leader of the sting.
    But I do believe that can be true….as anyone who have chances to steal….WILL STEAL… in the government.
    Najib have no power at all.

  30. One basic flaw of the BN government in this scandal is that it did not come clean and report to Parliament the moment the crime occurred.
    Most likely, it was more interested in damage control so as not to weaken its position in the last general elections.
    If one considers the age of the engines and the fact that the planes are no longer in use(?) the moentary value may not be much and may not even justify the A-Gs office spending lots of dinero on a wild goose chase into the pampas of Latin America or even Macchu Pichu.
    What is important is how the so-called fool-proof inventory system was breached by a bunch of low-ranking officers.
    Yes, following the money trial is a good method – for a start, the MACC should divert its energy to checking the life-styles of all the officers up the line from the following places like the stores and goods receiving sections.
    Remember a few years ago, a landslide uncovered millions of ringgit in a general’s house, the MSM news was clamped after that. Whose money was that?

  31. It is a dilemma to elect which explanation to give for this ‘theft’ of RM100 million F5 fighter engines.

    The first is ‘kleptocracy’ if it were conceded that such a sting would not have been able to be perpetrated without high level complicity.

    The second alternative is to maintain that there is NO ‘kleptocracy’ as Kit charges but that the engines were stolen by low ranking sergeant of RMAF by reason of ineptness of higher ranking officers whom he outwitted and circumvented their systems of inventory controls!

    It appears that these engines were transported in a military container from RMAF’s Butterworth base to the Sungai Besi base for a routine maintenance where the jet engines were stored at the Sungai Besi warehouse while its service and maintenance record was otherwise kept in a safe in an office on the base.

    However taking such a line implies that the low ranking sergeant is a genius of sorts. How could he otherwise organize the taking of the engines from the warehouse? (Simple explanation: warehouse was simply locked up – no military personnel guarding them – so just get the help of a thief of motor vehicle parts or burglar familiar in how to unlock the warehouse!) But still the sergeant must be highly intelligent. He knew no buyer would take possession of these General Electric J85-21A afterburner turbojet engine jet engines without the maintenance and service documents, so he could also organize these to be stolen as well from a safe in an office somewhere on the base! And then he could get personnel or crane to haul these engines, each weighing 200kg each from warehouse into a lorry/trailer, transport them out from the Sungai Besi warehouse to the port, get Customs clearance to uplift them unto a vessel and ship them out! He also a genius to be able to identify/source the correct correspondent agent for buyers of such hardware in the black market and arrange for offshore payments! Based on KPIs, NKRAs etc how come he is still a sergeant? . He knew Northrop ended production of these F5 in 1989, so there’s little spareparts, and getting our pilots to fly F5 exposes them to non combatant risks and instead of letting F5s rot, might as well make commercial gain out of them! Had it been a meritocratic system he ought to have much earlier been promoted up to the higher ranks in replacement of inept high ranking officers whom he has apparently outwitted and circumvented their systems of inventory controls!

    Between the two choices – 1. ‘kleptocracy’ or 2. Ineptitude of Higher ups and genius of low ranking sergeant – the latter 2. is (in this dilemma) a more logical option for one basic reason. The United States, which sold the hardware to the RMAF, would surely want to know how this happened. We all know that the US imposes arms embargoes, on several countries including Iran, Sudan and Venezuela amongst others : so US will be less angry with option No. 2 than 1. Why ? Because 2 is easier rectifiable/reversible and mitigatable than 1! All one has to do in the case of 2. is to tighten inventory controls, retire a few majors and brigadiers, promote a few of other sergeants of such caliber who otherwise have no other way to express their ‘genius’ except via common thievery!

    However back to basic conundrum : How come the authorities did not make it known to the public within a reasonable ‘immediate’ time frame upon discovery two years ago of this theft?? What changed?

    It must be some third party’s intelligence service or whatever discovering this – for otherwise one does not even have to face or resolve the delimma or either accepting the accusation of 1. ‘kleptocracy’ or 2. Ineptitude of Higher ups and genius of low ranking sergeant, both choices unpalatable. However upon this sting being known then a dilemma between two unpalatable choices is precipitated and the more intelligent choice between the two with more damage control and hopefully least fall out is the latter.

    Malaysia Boleh!

  33. Again ag is being and let himself being used as the power of the day’s mouth piece. It was very strange for him to categorically announced that no TOP officer are involved but only the rank and file. May the top brass were busy playing golf overseas with all expenses paid by the suppliers.

    How on earth this kind of theft can only involve the low raking officer? If this is true then RM100 million inventory should be consider as peanut to Malaysia Arm Forces and only those worth RM1 b and above should be properly guarded.

    Anyway only those with the prawn brain will believe in this typical BN’s lies.

  34. The thievery has already aroused attention of counter-terrorism bodies worldwide. They fear that the engines might fall into the wrong hand. The maker of the engines (in America) expressed great concern over the matter.

    What shame the “rank and file” have brought on the country!

  37. did the investigation by the police involve the money trail?

    i think such a huge amount can be easily traced.
    it might open up another can of worms.

    further to that, shouts by the police of recovering the engine but not a single whisper of recovering the money, might point to a high postitioned politician or army personel involved here.

  40. Wow, very smart rank-&-file masterminded d stealing, transportation, n sale
    Made tons of $$$$$
    Then so stupid 2 remain in d service 2 b got n punished
    Rather than 2 hv left d service n 2 enjoy life elsewhere
    Who’s dumb – d AG, rank-&-file, or us readers

  41. once again 2 indian subordinates are caught, where’s the big fish? u mean to tell me to nonmuslim nonmalay low ranking officers managed to sell aircraft engines without any of these overweight overpaid malay general knowing it? only in malaysia! i pity the fool!

  42. Malaysia being a “Boleh” country, proper procedures and controls must have been put in place on the storage of the jet engines.

    So, it must be one of the following:

    1. The rank-n-files are too smart;
    2. TheGenerals are too stupid;
    3. Both the above;
    4. The Government think we are stupid.

  43. Hoi, grkumar. If you are indian (which i doubt) you should be jumping in defence of the two indian scapegoats over the missing jet engines. Seeing what happened to PI Bala, we more or less can guess what could hv happened to these two guys as well.

  44. This Bolehland has been imbued with the mentality of gatekeeping over the last 30 years;it has permeated to EVERY LAYER of the society. When the BOSS can steal so could I! And why not? We’ve lost the moral obligation and dignity as a society; notwithstanding we fight like mad over the name of the creator! We’re just living in an illusion. So naming a used engine scraps and then dispose it is no magic. This had been done all these years; only difference: they were not caught. And I wasn’t surprised that an Indian staff was involved since scraps gathering is basically an Indian community business today. So what’s news? Our society has accepted corruption as part of our everyday life for some 30 years; you can’t expect any change, maybe for another generation.

  45. And where the hell is the backdoor Minister of National Unity Koh Tsu Koon? Shameless bugger. Still want to cling on to his cabinet position. Some people just don’t know when they are not welcomed anymore… an insult to Batu nKawan people who voted him out but still shamelessly hang on!

Leave a Reply