KUALA LUMPUR – The “ikan bilis” charged for their alleged involvement in the ongoing littoral combat ships (LCS) controversy are mere smokescreens for “big sharks”, said PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli.
Noting the complications behind delays in the RM9 billion project, he claimed that individuals from the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) could not have possibly thought of such schemes.
“As far as I know, future charges will involve former navy officers. (These schemes) would have been above their pay grade,” he said during the launch of the Ayuh Malaysia campaign truck in Wangsa Maju here late last night.
“(The LCS issue) is one of the world’s biggest corruption schemes. They (former RMN officers) do not have the sophistication to pull this off.”
As such, he said the arrangement of multi-layered offshore shell companies could have only been carried out by “sharks” with power, not “ikan bilis”.
He added that the LCS issue is one close to the hearts of the people, especially the Malay population.
“The Malay people, even those in rural areas, understand that money has been taken from our military forces.”
“How can you expect our military to be on standby to defend the nation if they don’t even have ships?” he said to some 300 supporters.
Alleging that the safety of navy personnel will be at risk due to poor conditions of delivered ships, he said he will be releasing another exposé tomorrow.
He also claimed that RM1.7 billion had been spent on purchasing equipment unrelated to the defence sector at exorbitant prices.
Rafizi said the contentious LCS issue has also done a number on the Barisan Nasional linchpin as its leaders appear to be taking aim at each other over who should answer for the project’s delay.
He claimed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who is Umno vice-president, is using the LCS issue to put Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and defence minister and Sembrong Umno chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein on the spot.
“They are just taking shots at each other (over the LCS issue) while the people worry about the nation as we don’t have sufficient defence equipment.”
Taking aim at former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Rafizi said Najib also could not escape his role in the controversy as he had been the finance minister during the project’s early days.
“Any decision by the Defence Ministry about government spending must have gone through him (Najib).”
The LCS project has been laid bare after Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee published its scathing report earlier this month, which was followed by a declassified report by the Investigating Committee on Procurement, Governance and Finance.
On August 16, former navy chief and former Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) managing director Tan Sri Ahmad Ramli Mohd Nor was charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust.
He is accused of fraudulently approving payments amounting to a total of RM21.08 million to three different firms without the approval of the BNS board while he helmed the company.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges after they were read to him before judge Suzana Hussain. – The Vibes, August 21, 2022
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