DEFENCE Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein is reported to have said that “every military camp throughout the country will allocate a plot of land for vegetable farming”.
It is not only bizarre but as a retired senior retired military officer of 33 years of service, I find his proposition shocking.
The minister’s logic that this move “would guarantee essential food security for soldiers” is short of scraping the barrel of bankrupt ideas.
His idea presupposes that soldiers will now be burdened with the added responsibility to become vegetable farmers fending for themselves, in addition to their primary responsibility as soldiers – i.e. to train for battle and defend the nation.
The question is, now that the head honcho has made the statement, will the armed forces leadership be willing to uphold it and interpret it as sacrosanct?
We need to also ask to what extent our nation’s armed forces personnel have to be involved in this new vocation.
Will there be a section or a platoon of vegetable farmers formed in each camp site? Will there be a special fund allocated by the minister for this purpose?
While the nation recognizes the urgent need to tackle the current global food security and supply chain disruption issues, the defence minister’s idea will not work well with the armed forces leadership.
This is because formations and units of the armed forces have their own regular training schedule that has to be fulfilled to ensure that their state of readiness is constantly at its peak.
To turn soldiers to become vegetable farmers will deprive them of the essential military training that is required of them, and for which they were recruited in the very first place.
Mind you, honourable minister, farming is not a part-time engagement.
Hishammuddin may have overlooked that there are greater issues affecting the armed forces that he needs to be looking at, especially the state of readiness of the armed forces to deal with any eventualities affecting the security of the nation and the provision of much-needed equipment and weaponry to meet future threats.
This readiness for battle is a phenomenon already affecting the entire world. Surely Malaysia is not operating within a cocooned buffer or are we, so much so soldiers are told to go do farming instead?
The February 11, 2013, Lahad Datu incursion or Operation Daulat should serve the armed forces and the Malaysian police force as a useful lesson that the training of their forces should never ever be compromised.
Has Hishammuddin not learnt anything from this deadly incursion by 235 militant Royal Security Forces of the sultanate of Sulu?
It took our security forces more than a month to defeat the threat which, in hindsight, could have been over in less than a month if there wasn’t so much political interference.
Sir, just recall who was in the news throughout Operation Daulat to get a drift of political meddling.
Instead of making farmers out of soldiers, the minister is better off if he would turn to address the demands of the veterans that have been in the news recently.
The demands are nothing more than seeking what is rightfully theirs within the stipulated confines of the law, and what has been promised to them by past defence ministers and remain empty promises to this date.
Hishammuddin, himself being the defence minister for the second time, is certainly no stranger to the demands of the veterans. But does he have the political will to respond positively to the demands of the veterans? He has yet to prove that he cares for the veterans.
Patriot urges Hishammuddin to reconsider his idea of turning soldiers into farmers and to leave it to the agriculture minister to come forward with a national plan on how to improve food security for the nation.
As the Latin adage goes, “age quod agis” (do what you are doing – concentrate on the task at hand) the defence minister should mind and care about the defence of the nation.– The Vibes, June 22, 2021
Brig Gen (Rtd) Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji is president of the National Patriots’ Association
