2013 Defence Budget…

PETALING JAYA: IT appears that the 2013 budget will not be anything special for the Armed Forces. A slight reduction could be in the works as was done last year. Perhaps they will increase the salaries and allowances of soldiers but no extra money for procurement.

2013 BUDGET: NO ADDITIONAL SUM FOR MINDEF TO ENABLE GOVT TO FOCUS ON PEOPLE'S SOCIO-ECONOMY
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 (Bernama) — There will be no additional allocation
for the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) in the 2013 Budget so as to give more space
to the government to focus on improving the people’s socio-economy, said Defence
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Read Here

Oh, well….

–Malaysian Defence

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18 Responses to "2013 Defence Budget…"

FareedLHS says:

September 13, 2012 at 7:25 pm

PATHETIC!

The Minister stated that he was “satisfied” and “[t]his is because we feel that socio-economic programmes should be given priority.” (Is this code for “we need to buy more votes before the next election”?) He then completely contradicts himself by stating: “we will continue with the existing training and preparing ourselves for readiness to face any potential threat” and “safeguarding national security and sovereignty remained a priority without any compromise.”

Ok. And without funding how is “training and preparing ourselves for readiness to face any potential threat” and “safeguarding national security and sovereignty” possible?

—

Courtesy of Merriam-Webster

Definition of PATHETIC

1: having a capacity to move one to either compassionate or contemptuous pity

2: marked by sorrow or melancholy : sad

3: pitifully inferior or inadequate

4: absurd, laughable

I’m currently split between definitions 3 and 4…

Reply
This is the kind of response that will get me off the invitation list of Mindef! LOL…
... says:

September 13, 2012 at 7:36 pm

erm more focus on people’s socio-economy… like the 700mil blown by the PM on his “tours” of the various states earlier this year?

With the events unfolding in SCS, and our large southern neighbours rapid increase in new military equipment (24-34 F-16, 16 super tucano, 10 c-130 hercs, 100 leo2 tanks, heli’s, 20-30 new fast missile attack crafts, 2-4 new LST ships etc etc…) our defence is more important than ever… sadly our spending is stuck in 2 major procurement costing USD4bil, the AV8 and SGPV as IMO we can get more value if buying off the shelf and/or used equipment.
Mustaffa says:

September 13, 2012 at 8:50 pm

if im not mistaken,most of our defence procurement has always been not included within the budget itself.the goverman usually fork out xtra money for it.

Reply
No lah everything is in there, anything extra is funded through a supplementary budget. The misconception is borne from the fact that for years the defence allocation was only mentioned in passing as only the amount allocated mentioned during the budget speech and documents. Only last year they give a more detailed breakdown though we still had to assume many things.
nimitz says:

September 13, 2012 at 9:16 pm

With our neighbors gearing up their armed forces with updates of hardwares + softwares,yeah GE13 just around the corner so spare the men-in-arms for this year lets splash the monies elsewhere..LOL
Cicit Yeop Mahidin says:

September 13, 2012 at 11:37 pm

Menang sorak (pilihanraya) kampung (tanahair) tergadai…..
FareedLHS says:

September 14, 2012 at 5:20 am

Oh, I definitely don’t want to get you blacklisted! My comments are mine and mine alone. I merely asked a question. I did not state that anyone was actually buying votes. I have no proof whatsoever. As for contradicting himself, that is clear from the statements. Unless of course he misspoke; which apparently happens a lot.
FareedLHS says:

September 14, 2012 at 5:27 am

Seriously, now, if the budget outlook is flat, the armed forces need to look for economies within the existing budget in order to fund much needed procurements and upgrades. For example, the RMAF should, as I have said before, ground, scrap, sell or trade the MiG-29s, the Hawks and the F-5s. The ONLY combat aircraft that should be flying are the F/A-18D Hornets and the SU-30MKMs. Funds saved from not operating, repairing and servicing the other aircraft can be put into upgrading the Hornets and the Sukhois. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Reply
Yes they can do that but it must be done slowly and methodically, people need to re-learn new trade, the budget need to reflect new necessities. They must also take into account whether the bean counter will agree money now allocated to the soon retired aircraft can be diverted to other means ie operating, maintaining or upgrading other planes. The fear is that once you stop using the 15 planes or so the justification to use the XX amount of ringgit for the same purpose albeit different aircraft remained valid or they need an endorsement from the powers-that be. Don’t think this is just something I dream off. Walk into any govt department and you will find two or three people doing the same job although one person is sufficient. This occurs as in the past the extra positions were opened for various and valid reasons but is currently redundant. They loath to cut any position or funding even for valid reasons as they might never get the same thing in the future.
kamal says:

September 14, 2012 at 10:22 am

well as i imagined earlier. We just have to make sure that if we cant reduce the price of the AV8 and the LCS, just ensure we get what we paid, not something less. 257 AV8 and 6 LCS fully armed and full specs are very capable indeed, if we get exactly what we were promised. More often than not janji tak selalu di tepati…….

I agreed with Fareed and Marhalim last comment. A restructuring of the armed forces should be considered albeit steadily. An australian model may be could work for us, i dunno
cheekucai says:

September 14, 2012 at 11:38 am

True true, that’s why even the big oil and gas company departments will spend all their allocated budget at the end of year/term, because once they save some of the budget money for the current term, it would be very hard to get the same originally allocated amount the following year regardless of the irregularities of maintenance requirement from year to year. My guess the fear with RMAF is the same, cut cost this year, next year the beanos will ask “why need more money, last year ok what?”
nalzar73 says:

September 14, 2012 at 12:05 pm

Well there goes our defence down the drain. I should applaude our leaders for being very future sighted in the interest of the people of country. Remember the Malacca Empire. Lets pray that our country today will not become like it.
loreng says:

September 14, 2012 at 6:20 pm

The government has to attend to other priorities since it is an election year.I am sure the government (if they are re-elected) will continue to attend to the ‘wish list’ of the Armed Forces.However,it is never easy to determine which project should be launched first and which one should be launched later.Every project has its own place and importance in the defence of the nation.However, one important fact stands out.The strength of our defence is as good as the will power of our people.This is one area where the government has to put in more effort to inculcate the spirit of patriotism and the willingness to take-up arms to protect our motherland.The National Service is a good start where it could be upgraded to a more comprehensive scheme and wider scale of involvement of able-bodied men and women.
When such structure is in place, may be then, we could reduce our defence expenditure, as there is no requirement to spend so much money on all those expensive military
hardware.

Reply
What if the other side wins?
loreng says:

September 14, 2012 at 8:56 pm

Marhalim,
Bingo, you hit the nail on the head.’The other side’ ie the Shadow Cabinet from PKR has not said anything on how they want to handle national defence if they come to power.
So how to have any confidence that it would be better handled and managed under them if they are not prepared to engage the public on the subject openly?Where is the principle of transparency and accountability? I have heard though people saying: the PKR will cancel all the big contracts, restructure the MAF, allocate a smaller defence budgets etc…Such conjectures are bound to happen if they continue to remain silent on the subject matter.

Reply
Yes they have yet to articulate their stand on defence and national security issues. There is a high level committee on defence and national security but they have yet to make any viable statements on the issue apart from what had been said by the various leaders ie they will honour existing contracts but will have the right to look into how it was awarded etc. One of committee members had promised an interview once they had agreed to every thing.
I am doing this as it is right thing to do.
As stated on my header …”Reporting on Malaysian Defence without fear or favour”.

Of course don’t forget “On The Way”….
Mat Bon says:

September 15, 2012 at 9:46 am

My read is, if the ‘other side’ wins this coming GE, they will surely make a few big ticket purchases within the first 2 years. My rational is this, the other side had always telling that ‘this side’ overpriced on a lot of acquisition, corrupt here and there and etc. So the only way for them to show they are correcting the situation is to execute a few acquisitions themselves. Surely they will kompang how the price is lowered than they would be – had the other side did not win.

Honestly i like the prospect. Give them a try
loreng says:

September 15, 2012 at 3:22 pm

Marhalim,

We respect you for your stand, ”Reporting on Malaysian Defence without fear or favour.”
I am sure you have a lot of questions to ask but please remind the ‘committee person’ not to take his own sweet time and make us wait as it does not show a good sign that the committee is clear on what they want to do.

I would be grateful if you could ask him the following questions also:
1.Whether they intend to review the policy-making body of the Ministry and the MAF; ie the Armed Forces Council and the Joint Chiefs’ Committee.
2. What roles they expect the MAF to carry out, for example repel an invasion?, repel limited incursion?,dominate the EEZ?,dominate the air-space?,secure the territorial space?, secure the land, sea and air borders?
3.Whether they intend to restructure the military organizations, its command and control system, its roles and missions.
4.Whether they intend to review the Ministry and MOF’s procurement systems so that the users (Army, Navy and Air Force) get what they want.
5.Percentage of GNP to be allocated for defence.
Thank you.
Phillip says:

September 15, 2012 at 4:21 pm

The Indonesians are buying 103 Leos,50 Marder 1A3′s and 10 transporters to be concluded at the end of September, besides purchasing the three Nakhoda Ragams for US$280m for the lot.

Reply
And your point?
FareedLHS says:

September 15, 2012 at 11:10 pm

Some good questions loreng. In fairness though, I think it will take them some time to really understand the entire situation. The current government is going to do everything it can to hide what’s behind the curtain and it won’t be until Day One of any new government that they would know what the real defence situation is. And I guarantee that the outgoing government is not going to be cooperative. I’m sure a lot of files will be erased, documents shredded and so on.

So in the meantime, expect a lot of broad statements from the opposition, but not much else. The fact is that this government has been in complete control for decades and despite their repeated assurance of transparency in government, there has been very little.

And remember that anyone who is perceived as threatening to the government is going to be labelled an enemy. There are a lot of ‘rice bowls’ at stake. So, I applaud Marhalim’s brave stand.

Reply
Actually, DSAI probably knows more about defence and national security – especially the intricacies of procurement and what not – as he was in the Cabinet and even served as Finance Minister. I believed they will use that knowledge to formulate their strategy
ahmad says:

September 16, 2012 at 3:53 pm

if not done wisely military procurement always sucking country resources…
ryan says:

January 27, 2013 at 11:07 pm

I think some of you guys looking to the wrong way,. TNI just simply trying to catch up with the neigbouring countries after long drawn in lacking of budget for any military procurements. may be it sounds big with this year’s budget was estimated at $ 8bl, but actually it still won’t get us near even our minimum essensial force soon due to the geografic challanges. and the coming 30 F16s are “gift” and “only” cost us some $750 million to upgrade, an offer hard to resist.

But if I may sharing my (own) opinion, all this [TNI's movement to the border, the procurements, etc] was sparked and boosted when Malaysian Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi “accidentally” announced to the press at the Shangri-La Jakarta that the two Scorpene submarines ready to operate and based in the Sepanggar gulf, Kinabalu, close to the disputed areas Ambalat

Probably just wrong taken, but for Malaysians defense minister to announced such thing in the Indonesian state capital with Ambalat dispute issue between two countries sort of implying that Malaysia is preparing to open conflict.

Still I really don’t thing we will come to that. In the end It is all about bargaining power but meanwhile TDM should really looking to the North. imho

2013 Defence Budget…

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