KUALA LUMPUR 10 JAN: The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) will present the Defence White Paper that outlines the principles, strategies and the developmental plans for the Malaysian Armed Forces in the Parliamentary session in September 2019.
Minister of Defence Mohamad Sabu said, the white paper is based on references to countries like Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
“The white paper contains the National Defence Policies which will be understood by the people. As there are no more insurgencies and emergency periods in the country, it looks like the roles played by the Armed Forces have been forgotten.
“The people in Lahad Datu, Tawau and Semporna in Sabah, understand more the importance of security, and because of that they voluntarily organised fund raising programmes to fill the Tabung Pahlawan,” Mohamad said to the media after delivering his special message to the Armed Forces and the civil servants at Wisma Perkasa, Mindef here today.
He added, the white paper also includes the Armed Forces preparedness programmes for the short and long term.
Commenting on the ISIS movement that seems “quiet” lately Mohamad said, the Intelligence of Malaysian Armed Forces is constantly monitoring their movements even though there is no recent ISIS case reported in Malaysia.
Mohamad also said that the government is working on a welfare scheme known as ‘Bantuan Wira Negara’ (National Hero Aid) that will benefit a large number of the military staff in terms of their basic needs.
“This gift is in the form of food like rice, sugar, oil and other necessities that will help lighten their responsibilities and indirectly recognised their contributions and uplift the moral of the military and civil servants’ moral,” he reiterated.
Earlier in his message Mohamad reminded the Muslims to avoid conflict and war from happening in Malaysia due to the “game” played by foreign forces to conquer the country directly or indirectly.
Mohamad was referring to the conflicts in the Arab Muslim countries that were caused partly due to the wrong interpretation of Islam – following their personal interest and agenda that had sparked into endless wars.
“Some Muslims in the Arab countries believe that Islam could only be spread and become strong through bloodsheds or war and these are among the pulling factors for the young people to join the radical and armed groups,” he said. – Malaysia World News
