Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan has questioned whether the military land will be involved in the construction of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and the High-Speed Rail (HSR).

“With the recent publicity of the ECRL and the HSR, Patriot would like to add an additional question to our three unanswered questions.

“How much of the military land will be involved with the construction of the ECRL and HSR, and who or which company or companies stand to benefit?” asked Patriot president Mohamed Arshad Raji in a statement today.

He was referring to his earlier statement where Patriot had demanded answers from caretaker prime minister Najib Abdul Razak related to former minister Rafidah Aziz’s claims about the privatisation of 40,000 hectares of the Defence Ministry’s (Mindef) land to a three-person company.

Patriot is also appalled by the reply provided by Mindef to Rafidah’s claims, he said.

This comes after Mindef’s strategic communication unit (UKK) denied Rafidah’s claim that all military-owned land had been privatised to a three-person company.

“Patriot is appalled and finds the answers given by the Mindef UKK to be evasive and cleverly diverted attention to the administrative procedures, rather than giving direct answers.

“The answers given did not say Mindef land was not privatised... to other company or companies.

“It merely stated the alleged three-person company now owning the land is not true,” Arshad said.

As Mindef UKK stated that they carried out developmental projects through various approaches, including land swap privatisation, he said that unless stated otherwise, Mindef has unwittingly admitted the land had been privatised.

“Whether it has been privatised to the said three-person company is not so relevant,” he said.

What is important is whether Mindef land, whether all of it or a portion of it, has been privatised, Arshad added, as once the land has been privatised, there is nothing to stop the new owners from setting up “multi-tiers companies” to evade easy detection of the real owners.

A number of development projects such as the 1MDB-owned Sungai Besi Air Force base, the Butterworth Air Force base, the Johor Majidee camp and the Royal Malay Regiment Gua Permai camp are shrouded in secrecy, he said.

“Where is the voice of the members of the Armed Forces Council?

“Where is the voice of all our generals and top brasses?”

“With so much of uncertainty and unanswered questions, it invites one to wonder if the whole Mindef land swap and privatisation scheme is truly privatisation or piratisation,” he wondered.