A dignified economy emphasises values such as social justice and human rights, with the aim of creating equitable society that is aligned with Malaysia Madani. Economic policies to be designed to promote the well-being of the citizens by addressing social and environmental challenges, reducing inequalities, and ensuring basic needs are accessible. However, the current global scenario is highly volatile due to uncertainties, and this leads the world towards inflation, price increment of food and energy, and supply chain disruptions, that affected the populations.
In defence perspective, uncertainties would trigger higher defence expenditure. This is to cater for the defence forces to be better equipped, and to become a credible force that can uphold the integrity and sovereignty of a nation.
Defence spending is a strategic investment. This is to guarantee that the nation will have protection when the time comes. Malaysia’s defence budget observed to be decreasing tremendously since 1981 with 5.8% of GDP allocated to defence until recently announced of only 0.98% defence budget allocation this year.
MAF faced difficulties and daunting tasks in their quest of developing its strength to become a credible force to safeguard nation’s sovereignty. Photo: Air Times/K.Azhar
The amount seems to be only enough for maintaining aging assets in the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) inventory, and with current global scenario that inflict high inflation and unfavourable currency exchange, MAF faced difficulties and daunting tasks in their quest of developing its strength to become a credible force to safeguard nation’s sovereignty.
The development expenditure for the MAF has a lower multiplier effect and it is not as tempting compared to other public spending that accommodate higher multiplier effect contributed to better Return of Investment (ROI). However, defence expenditure will create job opportunities and enhance national defence industry, that will benefit the citizens and boost the economy of the nation.
Thus, the quality of investment from defence budget is paramount, so that the stakeholders’ money is spent wisely and efficiently. There are high perceptions of mismanaging and leakages of funds in Malaysia. These need to be stopped and the public need to be convinced that the funds are utilised prudently. The question here is not only on how the ministry should or MAF spend the budget allocated, but on how they spend to optimise the ROI to the nation’s defence that will be interrelated to resilience and sustainable economy.
A dignified economy which is balanced and respectful economic management with dignity for defence is paramount as to back up and support the nation from being bullied by others. Hence, the adversaries will not have ideas on challenging Malaysia, because we have the capabilities to strike or retaliate back! The importance of defence needs to be articulated explicitly. There is requirement of transparency for the Defence Ministry and MAF to convince the political masters and citizens due to ‘mishaps’ happened in regard to previous procurement processes.
Policy papers such as National Defence Policy (NDP) and Defence White Paper (DWP) need to be attracting enough in targeting the citizens.
This measure should be taken apart from creating greater awareness on the importance of defence and to inculcate element of patriotism, it is also to justify the investment made utilising stakeholders’ money. The roles of the MAF need to be made known publicly, especially the roles of introducing new technological advancement that always originated from defence industry and improving human capital development where the MAF nurtured a very credible work force not only for the defence industry but also to other sectors that require skilled workers.
‘Civilianising the military’ refers to the process of transforming the military organization and culture to be more closely aligned with civilian values and norms. The concept of civilianising particularly in the MAF perspective is the initiative of the wholeof-government and whole-of-society efforts to create awareness of the citizen in regard to the existence and roles of the MAF.
This concept is important for the population to gain knowledge and create awareness on the importance of our defence forces in safeguarding the sovereignty of the nation.
Policy papers such as National Defence Policy (NDP) and Defence White Paper (DWP) need to be attracting enough in targeting the citizens, for them to digest on what were transpired, so that the citizens may appreciate defence on layman terminologies and eliminate language barriers due to military jargons.
Defence deserves higher budget allocation to protect a dignified economy. It cannot be taken for granted, as an element of deterrence will assist and allow positive economic growth of the nation by deterring any harmful or ill intentions by others. It also will allow the contribution towards advancement of technology that can be generalised to other sectors, because historically it was proven that defence acts as the moderating factor towards the achievement.
Malaysia, as a sovereign nation, should be able to defend itself from being bullied by other intruding parties. Photo: Air Times/K.Azhar
Constant aggravations, interrupting oil and gas (O&G) exploration in our maritime domain, and kidnapping for ransom activities that discouraged tourists, greatlyaffect the development of nation’s economy.
Malaysia, as a sovereign nation, should be able to defend itself from being bullied by other intruding parties. A credible defence force plays an important role in mitigating those issues because uncertainties and volatile environment imposed the need for the nation to be always ready for any circumstances. – airtimes.my
First Admiral Ts Dr Shaftdean Lufty Rusland is a Naval Aviator with the Royal Malaysian Navy and currently he is undergoing National Resilience Course in National Resilience College Puspahanas in Putrajaya.
