Theft of jet engines puts the spotlight on Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 — A widening scandal over the theft of two jet engines by senior military personnel has exposed serious lapses in Malaysia’s security establishment.
It has also raised concerns that the country is emerging as a hub for the trade of illicit military-related equipment to countries declared as rogue nations by the United States and its allies.
Over the past week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Cabinet colleagues have scrambled to defend embarrassing revelations that two F5-E jet engines from the Royal Malaysian Air Force and other sensitive military equipment were smuggled out of a high-security airbase and moved by a cargo plane out of the country.
The theft of the two engines — each worth RM50 million — was discovered last year but became public only after it was exposed by a local newspaper.
Datuk Seri Najib’s response that investigations were ongoing after two years immediately attracted charges of a cover-up from opposition politicians.
Government officials have declined to identify the cargo’s destination, but Western diplomats closely tracking the situation said that the engines were destined for Iran, which has been under a US trade embargo since 1995 and is now under global scrutiny because of its refusal to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme.
“This is becoming a recurring theme with Malaysia and the frequency of instances where local or foreign companies based in Malaysia are involved in these illicit dealings has increased sharply since early 2000,” said the chief of a security advisory company, who once served as a senior diplomat in the region.
Malaysia’s international reputation took a serious dent in late 2003 when a large, politically well-connected company was discovered to be a crucial player in the now-defunct clandestine network headed by rogue Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, which sold nuclear know-how and technology to Libya, Iran and Pakistan.
The Khan-led network was exposed when centrifuge components produced by a subsidiary of the Scomi Group — a large engineering concern controlled by Kamaluddin Abdullah, the son of former premier Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and prominent businessman Shah Hakim alias Shahzanim Zain — were intercepted by European intelligence officials in a ship bound for Libya.
While the Malaysian government has cleared Scomi and its executives of any wrongdoing, Shah Hakim, Dr Khan and another Sri Lankan-born Malaysian permanent resident Buhary Syed Tahir were slapped with sanctions earlier this year by the US State Department for their involvement in nuclear proliferation.
More recently, several executives from Malaysia-incorporated companies, including firms owned by foreigners, were indicted in the US for illegally selling military equipment to Iran. These cases have triggered concerns among defence analysts and diplomats that Malaysia could become a hub for the illicit trading of military equipment and technology.
The latest fiasco is particularly disturbing as it directly involves senior air force officers who have yet to be identified by the Malaysian authorities, diplomats said.
“This has taken the game up several notches. Sooner or later, Malaysia will need to commit to the international community, particularly the US, that it will do more to police this kind of activity,” said a senior Kuala Lumpur-based Western diplomat who asked not to be named.
Najib’s immediate challenge will be to deal with the political fallout from the missing jet engines at home.
Apart from exposing serious breaches of security within the military, the theft occurred when Najib was defence minister and further revelations on the scandal could hurt the shaky prestige of his Barisan Nasional coalition government, which suffered its worst setback ever in last year’s general election.
Already, opposition politicians are hammering away at the scandal, describing it as a clear case of the worsening corruption in government.
DAP’s and Ipoh Timur MP Lim Kit Siang said the government had been “super slow” in investigating the theft.
PAS spokesman Idris Ahmad said “powerful people” had been involved.
“We don’t want only the ikan bilis to be arrested while the sharks are allowed to swim freely,” he said. — The Straits Times
It has also raised concerns that the country is emerging as a hub for the trade of illicit military-related equipment to countries declared as rogue nations by the United States and its allies.
Over the past week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Cabinet colleagues have scrambled to defend embarrassing revelations that two F5-E jet engines from the Royal Malaysian Air Force and other sensitive military equipment were smuggled out of a high-security airbase and moved by a cargo plane out of the country.
The theft of the two engines — each worth RM50 million — was discovered last year but became public only after it was exposed by a local newspaper.
Datuk Seri Najib’s response that investigations were ongoing after two years immediately attracted charges of a cover-up from opposition politicians.
Government officials have declined to identify the cargo’s destination, but Western diplomats closely tracking the situation said that the engines were destined for Iran, which has been under a US trade embargo since 1995 and is now under global scrutiny because of its refusal to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme.
“This is becoming a recurring theme with Malaysia and the frequency of instances where local or foreign companies based in Malaysia are involved in these illicit dealings has increased sharply since early 2000,” said the chief of a security advisory company, who once served as a senior diplomat in the region.
Malaysia’s international reputation took a serious dent in late 2003 when a large, politically well-connected company was discovered to be a crucial player in the now-defunct clandestine network headed by rogue Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, which sold nuclear know-how and technology to Libya, Iran and Pakistan.
The Khan-led network was exposed when centrifuge components produced by a subsidiary of the Scomi Group — a large engineering concern controlled by Kamaluddin Abdullah, the son of former premier Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and prominent businessman Shah Hakim alias Shahzanim Zain — were intercepted by European intelligence officials in a ship bound for Libya.
While the Malaysian government has cleared Scomi and its executives of any wrongdoing, Shah Hakim, Dr Khan and another Sri Lankan-born Malaysian permanent resident Buhary Syed Tahir were slapped with sanctions earlier this year by the US State Department for their involvement in nuclear proliferation.
More recently, several executives from Malaysia-incorporated companies, including firms owned by foreigners, were indicted in the US for illegally selling military equipment to Iran. These cases have triggered concerns among defence analysts and diplomats that Malaysia could become a hub for the illicit trading of military equipment and technology.
The latest fiasco is particularly disturbing as it directly involves senior air force officers who have yet to be identified by the Malaysian authorities, diplomats said.
“This has taken the game up several notches. Sooner or later, Malaysia will need to commit to the international community, particularly the US, that it will do more to police this kind of activity,” said a senior Kuala Lumpur-based Western diplomat who asked not to be named.
Najib’s immediate challenge will be to deal with the political fallout from the missing jet engines at home.
Apart from exposing serious breaches of security within the military, the theft occurred when Najib was defence minister and further revelations on the scandal could hurt the shaky prestige of his Barisan Nasional coalition government, which suffered its worst setback ever in last year’s general election.
Already, opposition politicians are hammering away at the scandal, describing it as a clear case of the worsening corruption in government.
DAP’s and Ipoh Timur MP Lim Kit Siang said the government had been “super slow” in investigating the theft.
PAS spokesman Idris Ahmad said “powerful people” had been involved.
“We don’t want only the ikan bilis to be arrested while the sharks are allowed to swim freely,” he said. — The Straits Times
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