DEWAN RAKYAT: It's cost-effective, ministry explains

THE Defence Ministry came under fire yesterday for buying second-hand defence equipment.

"It is strange. Why do we always settle for second hand equipment?" asked Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin as several MPs nodded in agreement during the question-and-answer session.

However, Deputy Speaker Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar was not amused and told him to sit down and not interrupt the Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop who was explaining the rationale for buying second-hand equipment.

Abu Seman was replying to a question by Ahmad Maslan (Pontian-BN) who asked why the ministry often bought second-hand equipment such as the KD Sri Inderapura from the US Navy and whether the ship was still in good condition.

"Such purchases cost less. Sri Inderapura is still in good working condition," Abu Seman said.
On another matter, the government said it does not plan to publish a White Paper on defence.

The government had never spelt out any of its policies in a White Paper, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in a written reply to Liew Chin Tong (Bukit Bendera-DAP).

The White Papers released by the government so far have been on the Militant Communist Threat (1966), Birth of Communist Threat (1971), Communists in Sarawak (1972), Memali Incident (1986), Bumiputera Malaysia Finance-Hong Kong (1986), Ops Lalang (1987) and Malaysia's Economic Status (1996).

Apart from that, Abdullah said the Defence Ministry was releasing the public edition of National Defence Policy which featured, among other things, defence relations, expenditure, industry, science and technology and security issues. -- Bernama

IT'S ON THE WALL !

The words are written in large CAPITAL letters for everyone to see.

Perhaps Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak needs to read it aloud for the One who is hard at hearing and possibly blind as well. The voters have spoken in Permatang Pauh.

Congratulations to Saudara Anwar Ibrahim. It needs to be said that there were more UMNO members there then the number of votes our man received, i.e. even the UMNO members chose not to back our nominee. Nonetheless, Anwar's win is legitimate.

Barisan Nasional got WHIPPED! Plain and simple. The voter turnout was less than the March election yet the winning margin increased for Pakatan despite the advantage BN had using the government machinery with unlimited financial resources. That's a TRIPLE WHAMMY!!!

Some argued that Anwar won resoundingly because of the September 16th deal that he's selling to the Rakyat. So the Permatang Pauh people were hoping to get a homegrown Prime Minister. I'd rather not venture on what worth they put on the current Prime Minister who is also the Chairman of the Penang State UMNO Liasion Committee.

It is shameful and selfish to stay longer than one's welcome. It's also mind boggling that the presumptive heir apparent who is supposedly highly intelligent puts much faith in the pledged power transition due to take place in two years time when several indicators including strong political intuition seem to show and feel that it is very unlikely to materialize.

We are told not to misconstrue the Permatang Pauh election results. Going back to the basics, I feel that some things should be taken at face value and we should snap out of this state of denial that we're in before we start believing in our own lies.

Posted by TPJ
http://tpj-one-thepatriot.blogspot.com