Eh Denial?

Hmm it seems that the incident in the newspaper report I posted about has been denied by the DG of ESSCOM. However the abduction part of the incident is confirmed and the authorities are looking for the gunmen. Nonetheless I must say the script sounds familiar and stranger things has happened.

Esscom d-g denies fishermen kidnapping incident

Who Said Civilians Do Not Deserve Bravery Medals?

These fishermen definitely deserves bravery medals all around as they understand the concept of Hanruh by deliberately putting themselves in harm's way in order to avoid a potential international disaster.

Gunmen force plucky fisherman to guide them to resort on Pulau Mabul, taken to army camp instead.

BY RUBEN SARIO

KOTA KINABALU: A group of about 20 heavily-armed gunmen abducted a fisherman and demanded to be guided to a holiday resort on Pulau Mabul, Sabah, but were taken to an army camp on the island instead.

The incident began when the fisherman, who was in his boat, was approached by a speedboat off Pulau Umadal at about 6.30pm on Tuesday.

Garbed in dark clothes and armed with shotguns and pistols, the gunmen forced the fisherman to board their vessel and guide them towards Pulau Mabul where several resorts were located.

Upon approaching the island, the gunmen spotted a number of red lights on the shore, which fisherman said indicated the location of a resort.

As they got closer, the gunmen realised that it was a military camp and quickly turned their vessel around, heading towards Philippines waters.

The gunmen then spotted another fishing boat with eight men on board and forced them to board their vessel as well.

After several hours, one of the gunmen asked the nine fishermen what their race and religion were.

When told that all were Suluk and Muslim, the gunmen guided their boat close to another fishing vessel before ordering them to jump into the sea.

When contacted, Semporna district police chief Deputy Supt Mohd Firdaus Francis Abdullah said the incident occurred between 6.30 and 9.30pm on Tuesday.

"All victims were fishermen from around Semporna. As soon as they were freed and reached shore, they reported the incident to us,” he said.

"We are trying to determine where the group originated from based on the information from the abducted fishermen," Firdaus added.

When An Ignoramus Pretends To Be An Expert

I always say, when you read what is on the internet to take it with a pinch of salt and do your own research before accepting it as a Gospel truth. Simple fact is that many bloggers write based on their own prejudices , myself included, and it gets worse if the posts are written with a political agenda. However what gets my goat the most is when someone posts as if he is an expert on the subject, and to add more authority to what is alleged quotes that certain anonymous experts in the field is either his direct source, or is the person(s) who gave the tip off or other such instruments that will have no way to be independently verified by the reader.

I do not want to take too much time on this post but just wanted to show the most recent example of a biased "expert" who just wants to make political hay with his post linked HERE. I normally doesn't care to link or comment on such nonsense as I do not want to give them an increased page view count, but his obvious mishmash of the replacement of Mig-29N replacement program with the alleged non-flyability of the Su-30MKM obviously demonstrated his ignorance rather than his expertise.

I wonder if he even knows what are the jets practising the Merdeka Day flypast as appeared in the photographs in today's newspaper below. The sad part is many with the same bigoted view will lap it up even though it is painfully obvious that 4 units of the MKMs are being spared by the Armed Forces in order to celebrate the grand event although obviously their operational needs are very pressing. Enough said.

OPS Cantas Is Definitely Working!

It has been great to read about the successes of our Police Force in curbing crime by arresting those responsible in the local press. I can safely say that You Will Not Walk Alone. The most heartwarming is the story below who loves his son in the correct way in my opinion. There may have been mistakes before but you are doing the right thing for your son now Dad! But I am sure there will be noises from certain parties about lock-up deaths la, bla! bla! bla!

Lorryman hands wanted son over to cops 

Published: Tuesday August 27, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday August 27, 2013 MYT 6:52:59 AM 

MALACCA: A lorry driver drove his son to the police station after finding out that he is on the wanted list for being part of the notorious 04 gang.

The father managed to trace the whereabouts of his son, who went into hiding following newspaper reports that he was being sought by police.

It is learnt that the 48-year-old father drove his son from Johor Baru before handing him over to the police. 

The 24-year-old gang member was being tracked by police to facilitate investigation into the murder of a rival 08 gang member on May 4 in Cheng here after a brawl.

It is believed the lorry driver from Cheng had spoken to Malacca police chief Deputy Commissioner Datuk Chuah Ghee Lye and Supt Gunarajan a day before and decided to personally hand over his son.

State Deputy CID chief Supt P.R. Gunarajan said the psychological approach used by police in solving the gang fight had been successful as three other suspected 04 gang members had surrendered on Aug 22.

Supt Gunarajan said a 19-year-old youth surrended at the police beat at Ayer Keroh court complex while two others, aged 18 and 19, voluntarily came to the police headquarters the same day.

Malacca police had placed eight people on the wanted list following the May 4 gang clash. The other four suspects have yet to be found.

 

Historical Narrative Day In School

With the assistance of Mejar (Rtd) Nor Ibrahim a fellow blogger, I had managed to arrange for the appearance of  Dato Mejar (Rtd) Salehuddin, a PGB medal owner to give a narrative on his experiences in the armed forces at my daughter's secondary school and also to inspire the students to love the country and appreciate how the nation has arrived at the stage it is at now. This was as part of the Patriotic Month shedule of Events. The whole school turned up for the narrative and I must say the response was very good. In fact, invitations from other schools in the other area was also extended to Dato' . If you would like to have something similar to be arranged, please drop a line at the comments section.

In the meantime, here are some of the photos from the event.

AV8 RCWS News?

Further to our previous speculation on the AV8 RWS system to be supplied more than a year ago , another defence blog has reported that according to SIPRI database, 54 Rogue turrets has been ordered. This seems to confirm the earlier reports that Denel obtained the order for 69 x two man turrets fitted with the South African GI30 30mm main gun and 54 x missile turrets equipped with the GI30 30mm gun and Denel Dynamics Ingwe anti-tank missile system. The order also includes the supply of 216 laser-guided Ingwe missiles.(So Sipri was wrong here as they double counted 69 + 54 = 123 turrets). How I wished that the Missile Rogue ATGW armed was selected as it would give these battle taxis a powerful punch on their own similar to the 30mm armed units.

Time For You To Make A Stand.

It has become something of a Bolly tragedy for me when certain levels of society has besieged the Police Force for taking out elements of the underworld, with families and their lawyers and opportunists not limited to politicos claiming they are not members of secret societies, when it is clear they were given a grand send-off by their gangster brethren and actually have criminal records themselves.

So is it any wonder that these criminal elements has become so emboldened that they have resorted to vandalising police stations and police bases with their gang's symbolism, presumably as a form of intimidation that they have 'backers' who will condone and 'protect' their actions that they feel may be fit to regain their "honour" after key members of their society were eliminated.

 

It is time for us the Public to make a stand and show our support for our security forces. Previously they were criticised for what was claimed as a side-show or sandiwara in Lahad Datu. Now they are being criticised for making a police drama when they in an attempt to address the increasing crime rates by arresting the alleged criminals responsible unfortunately resulted in a gun battle that the badsters paid for with their lifes. Some are even claiming that the recovered weapons were planted at the scene of the crime. I strongly believe these are the same people who gives scant regards to our traffic laws nowadays and probably other laws too in a contorted belief that these are unjust laws, so it is now justifiable to slam the law enforcers themselves. However one important fact seems to be conveniently ignored by these upstanding members of society (no typo here). These gangsters that they now are so fond of are also targetting respectable society as shown in the photo below.

 

As I keep repeating myself in other media forums, do not cry crocodile tears and ask for police protection when our nation actually turns into what some nations in Latin America and elsewhere has become. I would rather have a police society than a criminal society, and I support our Security Forces especially the Police to enforce our laws as they see fit. Some bad apples in the barrel do not make the whole lot the same, and you yourself are at fault if you encourage the black sheep actions as there are avenues to make legitimate complaints against the force. However respect them and allow them to become the professional law enforcers that they are, that is my personal stand. You have to decide on that on your own. Only then we can have a civil society again if the right choices are made. Political leanings account for nothing in this case. Frankly.

Fly It High!

Understand the meaning well!

Happy Eid Ramadhan 1434 Hijrah

Military Medals For Civilians - Why Not?

The Government of Malaysia has seen it fit to award the Pingat Kedaulatan Negara, a special medal for those who participated in the recent Lahad Datu action, to members of the media from both the public and private sector. Nonetheless this has invited critiques from local Defence Journalists who feels that "the decision to award the medals which were supposed to be a special item for security personnel and other government officers" "cheapens the medal". 

 

I may be privy to the underlying reason why the decision was made, but then I will not divulge why in any case. But what I can say is that it seems those that are bad mouthing the award to these combat journalist are those who actually did not go into the field when the real combat action happened in their own backyard, maybe because they were content to remain defence journalist and not cover the action directly as those awarded did. 

The point that I want to make is simple. Military bravery awards for bravery under combat conditions and gallantry awards for gallantry or an euphemism for bravery not considered as outrigth combat condition are not mutually exclusive for military men nor civilians as they claim. Let us take a look at the conditions for the Commonwealth Victoria Cross that our military shares a tradition where quote "Civilians are also eligible for some of the following awards: The Victoria Cross The first British medal to be created for bravery, the Victoria Cross ranks alongside the George Cross as the nation's highest award for gallantry. It is awarded only in exceptional circumstances: "for most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy." The records show that four civillian VC's were awarded during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and another civilian VC was awarded during the 2nd Afghan War in 1879.

The underlying link for the award of these Civilian VC's are that the recipients were working with the military,  or while under military command when their action were recognised. I can say that this hints at the reason the Pingat Kedaulatan Negara awards were given to the media personnel, despite a claim that "media were not allowed with 15km radius of the scene (which why none of the defence journos here went - no way we agree to conduct coverage from far away)." They chose not to be there, so whatever they claim I consider as a matter of conjecture. I think that the numerous public coverage of the incident in the mass media even by non-government friendly media Malaysiakini and  KiniTV journalists who by the way were also awarded contradicts that claim easily. Maybe they confuse it for a bravery medal rather than a service medal created to honour those who served at the frontline of Ops Daulat. 

"  After honouring security personnel on duty during the Lahad Datu intrusion, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has now awarded medals to media practitioners who covered the crisis......

...The Prime Minister (Sic) said the medals were in appreciation of the services of media practitioners who had helped in disseminating information during the entire intrusion.

“The media practitioners were exposed to a very high risk and yet they needed to channel accurate and authentic information to the people,” said Najib.

He added that the news reports in the print and electronic media during and after the intrusion had united Malaysians and kindled the spirit of nationalism." From The Star.

So make up your own opinion on whether these media practitioners deserve the award or otherwise. In the words of a recipient, they did not ask for the award nor expect but appreciated the fact they were awarded anyway. So to me it is outright rude for those who definitely did not deserve to be awarded with it as they chose not to cover the event to now question the award. Sounds like sour grapes to me.