After the shelving of the RM1.67 billion 12 Cougar EC725 Eurocopter deal of the Royal Malaysian Air Force, the next project being deferred is the purchase of 21 police helicopters for the Royal Malaysian Police.
This was revealed by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Amirsham Aziz just before Parliament ended at 10 pm last night, after I had asked him during his winding-up speech on the 2009 budget what are the other projects which are being shelved because of the global financial crisis to enable the government to reallocate public expenditures.
The police request for 21 new helicopters was revealed by the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan in August, as reported in the following report of Utusan Malaysia on 13th August 2008:
21 helikopter awasi perairan
LABUAN 12 Ogos – Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) akan menambah 21 buah helikopter bagi meningkatkan kecekapan operasinya terutama di dalam mengawasi perairan negara, kata Ketua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Musa Hassan.
Menurut Musa, cadangan untuk membeli helikopter itu telah diluluskan oleh Kabinet baru-baru ini dan kerajaan akan memutuskan pembelian aset tersebut kemudian.
‘‘Pada masa ini kita (PDRM) mempunyai 12 buah helikopter dan jumlah itu tidak mencukupi memandangkan tugas pasukan semakin mencabar,” katanya kepada pemberita selepas acara menembak sempena lawatan wakil media ke Pulau Layang-layang, dekat sini hari ini.
When did the Cabinet approve the purchase of 21 helicopters for the Police, what were the allocations approved, the helicopters preferred and the procurement process decided upon before the project is shelved?
What are the other government mega-projects which have been shelved by the national economic executive council meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Oct. 13 “to prioritise spending to weather the current global financial crisis”?
Who are the members of the national economic executive council?
It is only logic and right that the purchase of 12 police helicopters for PDRM has been deferred and shelved in view of the current economic slowdown. More wasteful and unprofitable projects or other undertakings should also be dealt with in the same fate. The rakyat wants accountability and transparency in how the government spends the people’s hard-earned cash!
They are official secrets. And you know why some road signs and traffic lights are concealed by large objects like trees and advertisement boards. Same reason. Those signs and lights happen to be official secrets too. You will see something no doubt. So that the umno government can claim that you do know something. Details? Oh no no no. Cannot tell you. Now consider this likely response: “Yeah see I am not scared to be seen. I hv nothing to hide and I am not hiding.” said some umnoputra. “But dont ask me to go naked lah. Itu tak boleh.” See the logic. So somethings are secrets and must remain so.
Oops………. CORRECTION. It should be 21 police helicopters and not as mentioned. Thank you.without sitioH
Helicopters? Even if the PDRM were to be provided with EWACs and F22 Stealth bombers, criminals in this country would go on with their business as usual
Please check who are in the national economic executive council?
Maybe liaw liaw kaki nang oh???
Wow, Kit, you should keep digging. Maybe there are a few more multi-billion projects hovering around, waiting to take off or… crash down to earth…
What is the unit price of Police helicopters compared to Eurocopter? Is the company selected by the police to arrange for the purchase and to provide technical and maintenance services the same as the company selected to deal in Eurocopters? What has been the cost of maintenance by the ministries concerned compared to the proposed outsourcing carried out by the companies. Were the payment in the form of commission for services rendered in the purchase of military equipment higher than the payment to the companies involved in both the purchase and the services? In other words does outsourcing cost more?
Dear All,
Malaysia has been richly blessed with natural resources like tin ore, petroleum, palm oil, rubber and many others. Malaysia has also been blessed with many talented individuals who are now heading top political parties, huge conglomerates and many other sectors. My grandmother once told me that there was this saying in the old days about Malaya i.e. you stick a twig on the ground it will soon grow a tree. That’s how richly blessed Malaya was then to many Chinese immigrants. However, on the same breath, my grandmother often reminded us that a rich and fertile land could soon turn barren and even toxic if it is continuously exploited without reapplication of manure or fertilizers. I am sure most will agree that one cannot expect a tree to bear fruits without application of fertilizers on a regular basis.
As many would now aware that we are all living in one big world. Some of the principles of economics that we learned in school are no longer relevant which even Alan Greenspan had finally admitted that a completely free market environment does not work anymore. His assumptions that company executives would take actions to check and prevent ultimate demise of their own organizations were wrong. In other words, human species are not working to preserve the existence of their own specie as long as they are not harmed. They care for themselves and nobody else. Hence explain why there are suicide bombers sacrificing themselves under the noble objective of fighting the evils but in actual fact they care for nobody but themselves. They are after a good afterlife as they have been promised of virgins awaiting them at the door of heaven.
We have similar problems in Malaysia as well. The education system in Malaysia today is drawn up to satisfy popular demand i.e. everyone wants a tertiary education, thinking that it leads to a good and better life even if its means lowering the quality of education. Of course, at the same time it serves to protect interests of the elites as they can afford better education elsewhere.I don’t think we can entirely blame the policy makers for this because they have basically bowed to the clamouring voice of the majority. Hence we have universities and university colleges sprouting up in every town in Malaysia. Great academic instituitions of the world like Yale, Oxford, Boston and many others take centuries to build their standing and reputation. Surely one cannot expect our academic instituitions to achieve similar proficiency or anywhere near them overnight. But then again, the conscience of the policy makers are absolutely clear because they have given to the people what they wanted, even if it means the ultimate destruction of the people and not themselves.
The second major step towards destruction is finding jobs to employ these half baked graduates. Economic 101 would tell us that salary and wages for university graduates were levelled down as they were more graduates clamouring for the limited jobs requiring tertiary education. And there is the issue of private sectors refusing to employ these half baked graduates who could not speak and write English well. Many of them have never heard of the word “poppy-cock”. They may tell you that it is actually a plastic shuttlecock. Many would have realized by now that wage levels in Malaysia did not move up in tandem with inflationary cost all these years which of course the employers are happy with. But the country cannot escape from inflationary pressures exerted from outside Malaysia. What do we get out from this? People clamouring the government to subsidize their cost of living as their income could not cover their living cost. I certainly believe that the government does not have such deep pockets.
Then you have the government taking the honour of employing these half baked graduates. The end result of all the above is the rapid emptying out the fertile soil of Malaysia. If you may like, you can say that these half baked graduates are toxic assets and could one day cause serious indigestion to the system.
If during good times like what we had enjoyed the past 5 years or so and the government not able to balance its budget, what do you think would be the case when the whole world is in deep, prolong recession? Crude oil contributes some 45% of the Malaysian government revenue with palm oil, a distant second. Now with the prices of both these commodities severely down, I think serious belt tigthening is required. Some may have travelled to the Phillipines and have seen poverty in a country that was the most prosperous nation in this region just 30 years ago.
It is sad to note that top politicians are still politicking for their survival when the country is in severe drastic need of a new formula of navigating itself out of the world recession. Sad to note that politicians are still in denial and resting on yesterday’s dreams when the world already been awaken by such a economical catastrophe.
Anwar Ibrahim was right that the budget tabled require a serious review.
Well, YB Kit, shelving the project doesn’t mean everything is ok. The answer to all this mega projects deal done within the confine of vested interest and dubious manner is not “we shelve the project due to economic downturn and so, so…… the usual bullshit”
The government has not responded as to why? Who? and how? As for the Couger, we see all the conflicting statements and figures. It seems no one is accountable and the deal was done through auto mode or the remote control hidden somewhere.
Pakatan Rakyat should not stop until the government admit and the Parliament Select Committee is set up for future procurements.
It is also in the interest of the nation that the Parliament to be presented by the Defense Minister on the progress of the defense local industry, an initiative by the government years ago for self reliance and blah blah…..What happen? What contribution or it is just another get rich quick scheme by getting government contracts. Do you know how much money spend? What is the benefit to the country or is it also on auto mode. AIROD, Zetro, SME, ATSC and the likes, are their existence justify. No one really care though we spent so much money for what? Day in day out, years in years out and nothing has change. The only thing is happening some people improve their golf games and hidden talent as Karaoke singer. The rest situation normal all [deleted].
The armed forces and the police should not totally shelved the projects to acquire helicoptors for their uses in protecting the country and the people.
In view of the potential impacts of the world financial crisis, the projects should be scaled down, instead of totally shelved and relocate the fund to other areas.
This will further hamper the effectiveness of the armed forces and the police in their functions of protecting the country and the people.
As long as the procurements are conducted within the guidelines and transparent, they should be allowed to go ahead at a lower scale. The difference can be made up when the times and the economy are better in the near future.
When the times are better there are always other priorities later and we do not want to miss out this opportunity to acquire the military hardwares for the country and people.
Well written comment ch!
Simple logic will tell us no reason the police need 21 helicopters. Can they identify who are the criminals by looking down from the sky? Are there a lot of high speed car chases in this country? What we need them to do is to get down to the street to know the situation and follow up on tons of police reports. Tats all. Not flying around pretending to be some 1st class cops but in actual fact just taking joy ride. Understand our maritime and custom officers speeding around our coastal water with twin engines speedboats as if participating in F1. So what, end result still so many illegal immigrants around. Just wonder how much they spent on these powerful speed boats?!
Good thing this financial meltdown……monkeys have no money to play with…..things will improve once the oil runs out…
If the government goes about buying without informing the people who could scrutinise than the government has some othe ulterior motives.It is shame that the elected opposition are kept in the dark.Shady dealings by the govrnment indicates that the government has no confidence in itself.The government should open a website and display all major purchases so that the public can participate.The money belongs to everybody and not to Umno/BN.
It is not projects which need to be shelved, it is the corrupt govt officials who need to be shelved in the dungeons
Who says that the Police don’t need helicopters ? This country is now very unsafe for the Police, and instead of permanent beat bases, the helicopters will become mobile beat bases. The Chow Kit beat base which has been closed down due to its danger to the Police will now be replaced by a hovering helicopter.
Uncle Lim, are you serious?
Do we really not know what this “national economic executive council” is?!
does abdullah want to stay beyond March? then he better screw up Najiv by allowing the investigation into the scandal.
Hey guys! The IGP need to get his slice of the cake too! How else could he do it without the purchase of some obsolete helicopters at inflated prices including spare parts??
There is another reason for the haste in purchasing helicopters. They will be needed to ferry out UMNO leaders and their families, their cronies to undisclosed locations when the time comes!
Everyone talked about a financial crisis.
Is there one in Malaysia? I thought the Government just announced that Financial krisis will not affect Malaysia. The stock market and economy is resilient, right.
Malysis is a pissful country and it economy and stock market is not expected to be hit violently. Where there is no fear, there will be piss.
opps.. I realised that I made a spelling mistake. ‘piss’ should have been spelt as piece (e.g. a pieceful country, no more war).
Please accept my problem with the speeling of the word ‘piece’. I just realised what piss meant. It is definitely what I had intended.
Sorry.
Uncle YB Lim, read from nst online of another ‘purchase’ by KTMB for 5 new trains (very ambigous, not clearly defined) at RM 240 million to be delivered by 2010 for the KL – Ipoh project!
Please look into this other ‘purchase’?
Smells fishy here!
IT’S OFF!