Malaysia among top 40 most powerful nations
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THIS news headline struck like a thunderbolt last week: Malaysia ranks 38th in world military strength.
A little underplayed in most papers, the story quoting The Defence Analytical Global Firepower (GFP) 2014 survey, had a huge underlying significance, especially when many quarters in the country are, on one hand, dead against huge arms spending while, on the other, are upset at the inadequacies that have emerged in eastern Sabah and in the aftermath of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Malaysia among the Top 40 most powerful nations. And that's only half the story.
A closer look at rankings involving 106 nations, topped by superpowers the United States of America and Russia, is sure to bring more stunners -- for instance, would you believe that our country is just three notches below North Korea, which has been parading its warheads every other day?
Malaysia is also placed ahead of South Africa (41st), a country which manufactures the formidable Denel Rooivalk attack helicopters. It is above Argentina (55th) which rained thousands of Exocet missiles on the British Navy in the Falklands war 35 years ago. Malaysia is 30 rungs above Iraq, which famously declared it was launching the "mother of all battles" against the mighty US-led troops in the Gulf War some years ago.
But above all these, at least two more eye-openers have emerged. One, Malaysia has been listed as a country that is militarily more powerful -- a difference of 15 rungs -- than Portugal, which to this day is recorded in our history books as the first Western power to conquer our land in 1511. Two, and this is bound to make many sit up, Malaysia is placed higher than Singapore which is at No. 44.
According to the report, the GFP list made use of over 50 factors including technology, arsenal, manpower, logistics, infrastructure, finances, geographical factors and natural resources to determine each nation's score. Tanzania stood at the bottom, in 106th place.
"While the GFP list took into consideration several of the above factors, the nuclear capability of a nation and the political or military leadership are not taken into account. These factors have been omitted as it will defeat the purpose of such comparisons. Instead, the GFP ranking is based on each nation's potential conventional war-making capabilities across land, sea and air," the report said.
Whatever it is, I still find it hard to believe that the island state across the causeway is less superior, especially with all the stories that you hear.
It has often been said that the Singapore's armed forces are able to detect the slightest movement of military hardware in any part of Malaysia. You also hear that the republic has multipurpose drones at its disposal, fighter jets parked in another country and that it has satellite capabilities powerful enough to be able to pick up the zoomed image of a matchbox on Petaling Street.
These are unverified statements, of course, due to security secrets professed by each country, but even then, it was widely reported a few years ago that Singapore was buying the state-of-the-art precision-guided bombs from the US for its F15 fighter fleet.
Then there was also news that the republic was securing US-made rocket artillery system for their army costing US$330 million (RM1.15 billion). The order for the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) included nine trucks, each fitted with a pod of six rocket tubes. At the press of a button, the trucks are able to launch rockets to pound enemy positions some 60km away.
Sometimes, this has left us wondering who the island state is targeting.
A very senior retired Malaysian military officer I spoke with the other day expressed deep reservations about the GFP rankings and survey list. "I don't see how countries like South Africa and Singapore can be ranked below us. Singapore, with its more sophisticated weaponry and experience in having regular military exercises with the US and Australia, is likely to be a class above, whereas Malaysia has to deal a lot with maintenance and personnel issues," he said.
Singapore's annual defence budget at US$9.7 billion is also double Malaysia's.
And talking of arms spending, many quarters argue that huge sums allocated to this is a waste of money. But they would be the first to criticise defence shortcomings like what happened on the few occasions of border intrusions in the Sabah east coast and the gross lack of proper resources at Malaysia's disposal in the search for the missing MH370 aircraft.
As we approach 2020, the target year for Malaysia to achieve developed nation status, the country has to affirm its position in three main areas -- economic power, which is not too bad being the 24th most competitive economy according to the World Bank. Sports power, which has a long way to go. And military power. This, we have to decide.
Read more: Malaysia among top 40 most powerful nations - Columnist - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/malaysia-among-top-40-most-powerful-nations-1.588301?cache=03%2F7.249451%2F7.265124#ixzz315qBZash
