Media Statement

By MP for Seputeh and, YB Teresa Kok
in Petaling Jaya
on Monday, 21 October 2002

The government should explain why the Ministry of Defence is given the third largest spending allocation among all the ministries in the 2003 Budget

The 2003 Budget is a deficit budget and we had expected the government to allocate more money to revive the economy, develop IT infrastructures and produce more knowledgeable citizens to propel Malaysia toward a vision of building a K-economy.

I understand that the government had spent millions of ringgit to buy 48 tanks and 14 support vehicles from Poland. Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamed first announced this decision during a visit to Warsaw in March. These tanks and support equipments cost about 300 million dollars. I have request the Minister of Defence in Parliament today to explain why our country need so many tanks, as we are not preparing for war.

Besides, I wonder why the Prime Minister has been to negotiating with arm dealers all the time instead of professionals in the Defence Ministry? Is it because the Prime Minister has more knowledge and experience than those experts? Who has the actual right to decide which kind of weapons are needed by our country? What use of officers in the Defence Ministry if someone else is executing their duty for them?

The budget allocated in the 2003 Budget to the Ministry of Defence is about RM 8.1 billion. If our country is not preparing for war, why do we need such huge sums of money to buy weapons? Which country is threatening our security?

Another problem is that the Ministry buys weapons from different countries, which have different weapons system. As a result, we have to spend more money on maintenance fees and training our officers to adapt to the various systems. Is this not something that is not practical?

Hence, I urge the government to explain why the Ministry of Defence obtained the third largest spending budget among all the ministries in the 2003 Budget as well as the other pertinent points raised by me.