No NSC directive: Chin Tong calls Hisham’s bluff
Deputy Defence Minister Liew Chin Tong has denied former defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s claim that the National Security Council (NSC) had approved Ops Yaman 2.
Instead, he said check found that the operation did not receive written approval from either the NSC nor the cabinet...
PARLIAMENT | Deputy Defence Minister Liew Chin Tong has denied former defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s claim that the National Security Council (NSC) had approved Ops Yaman 2.
Instead, he said check found that the operation did not receive written approval from either the NSC nor the cabinet.
“I’m disappointed that the former defence minister is not here today. Although he said the NSC had made the decision, but upon checking, the NSC never produced an initiating directive.
“When an operation needs to be performed, it needs an initiating directive from the NSC, or in this case the Armed Forces Chief’s Committee. However, there is no written initiating directive from the cabinet or the NSC,” he told the Parliament today.
He was winding up committee-stage debates on the Defence Ministry’s budget under the 2019 budget proposal.
Liew had revealed on Monday that Malaysian Armed Forces personnel had participated in a logistical operation in support of Saudi Arabia’s intervention in the Yemen civil war sometime by June 2015.
"They assisted the Saudi-led coalition in (the transport of) equipment, bullets and explosives," he said, adding that the cabinet was not informed of this.
He had said that Ops Yaman 2 would have required cabinet approval because it incurs a cost to the nation’s finances, and the bill came to RM14 million.
Hishammuddin (photo) claimed yesterday that the operation had been approved by the NSC.
“NSC. He (Liew) has to know what is the NSC. I think he doesn't know everything about the government.
“I think they (Pakatan Harapan) don't know how to be ministers,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday.
Liew told the Parliament today that investigating Ops Yaman 2 for noncompliance of procedure and wrongdoing should be the newly formed Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and Home Affair’s first task.
Report this comment
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
This action cannot be undone.