YOURSAY ‘Planes, ships, jet engines, money - we should lose those responsible.’
Gunboat found, suffered mechanical damage
Hplooi: This raises very serious issues of operational reliability and competency. The integrity of an armed force is measured not only by the amount and quality of resources (assets in security terms) available, but how combat or operation ready are the assets (measured by the number of assets which can be deployed immediately, or within ‘x’ hours/days).
The very fact that a combat vessel malfunctioned during operation (and the type of malfunction is of the preventable type), and contact was lost during operation and only restored after 14 hours will require in-depth investigation.
And the investigating team should be independent even if drawn from within the ranks of the forces. Otherwise nothing will improve.
Myrights: In this day and age of high technological advancement in communication, this is unacceptable. How can a country lose a navy ship?
What happened to the radio, GPS (global positioning system) tracker, and you would think there should have been at least a satellite phone. Worse is that it got lost while supposedly being escorted. What level of incompetence we have here?
Rupert16: The Air Force lost a jet engine. The police lost some guns. MAS lost two planes. And now the Navy loses a ship. 1MDB lost many billions of taxpayers' money. How I wish some of the inept and corrupt ministers will also get lost.
Sleepy: Experiencing mechanical faults is understandable. Losing contact of a vessel for a long period, especially when we are not in a war/emergency scenario, is incomprehensible.
Gen2: The extension of the curfew in Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) areas just proves that the authorities have not got a handle on the problem yet.
Losing a ship is embarrassing at best and plain incompetent at worst. Our Sulu Muslim brothers must be laughing.
P Dev Anand Pillai: Well, what is new and surprising? Nothing is to us any more. We have gotten used to all this.
Perhaps the only thing which can make one look up is when the majority community begins to think, and take their leaders to task.
Casey919: What a ‘loser’. Lost a plane in the sea. Lost another plane in the air. Lost the popular votes. Lost the economy. Lost the democracy. Lost, lost and a lot more lost. Way to go.
Headhunter: One can imagine what the families must have gone through since the initial report of the lost ship. The big question is why was communication totally cut off for so long? This is the Navy after all.
The Star reported on its front page that Typhoon Phanfone in the Philippines would likely cause havoc to the weather in Sabah and Sarawak. So why was the Navy still sending the ships out in such risky conditions?
Anonymous_3e79: Yes, don't they review the weather forecast before sending ships out or recalling them to shore?
Retnam: How much commission was paid in the purchase of this boat? This question is in very bad taste, obviously.
But because the Umno government is so bent on bullying the people, it is just is impossible to hold back hitting below the belt when an opportunity arises.
Bystander KD: KD Paus was supposed to be escorting the gunboat, yet lost contact. What kind of joke is this?
The CB204 cannot be a converted primitive fisherman boat that is not well equipped with navigation instruments on board. How much did we pay for CB204 by the way? Can someone please enlighten us?
It seems of late, 'Houdini' is the word used very often in Malaysia. MH370 vanished without a trace, MH17 shot down in unbelievable circumstances, jet engines missing from an Air Force base, submarines that refused to submerge and now the ‘disappearance’ of gunboat CB204.
Kit P: This is really mysterious. All naval ships and boats that go out to sea should be equipped with emergency radio which can be used even if the engine and main electrical power fails.
It should also be standard procedure to have these emergency radio tested regularly to ensure they function properly. These are military vessels which should be prepared for any eventuality.
It is strange that a warship can go missing for 13 hours without any contact, and the TLDM (Royal Malaysian Navy) authorities owe the public an explanation. Are the billions of ringgit which is being spent on the Navy being wasted?
Imanust Nais Yalam: I am not at all surprised by the deplorable state our armed forces are in now. It was just months ago that we found our radar operators were sleeping on the job.
Remember the few Sabah incursions? Also, has anyone seen our two submarines in action since they were bought by then defence minister Najib Razak?
Big BSter: First we lost the airplanes, then the ship. Do we realise that we are slowly but surely losing the country?
