KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 29): DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should explain why he has not told the full story to party leaders and members the main role played by him and former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the RM9 billion littoral combatant ships (LCS) scandal.

In a statement on Sunday (Aug 28), the Member of Parliament (MP) for Iskandar Puteri said he agreed with DAP national publicity cecretary and MP for Kulai Teo Nie Ching that former finance minister Najib and Zahid, as the defence minister at the time, cannot deny responsibility for the LCS scandal.

“In fact, this is the only conclusion to be drawn from two declassified reports on the LCS scandal, the Ambrin Report of the Special Investigation Committee on Public Governance, Procurement and Finance the LCS (JKUSTUPKK) and the report of the forensic audit of the LCS procurement (2011-2014) carried out by Alliance IFA (M) Sdn Bhd.

“This is why it was most dishonest and self-serving when Zahid said three weeks ago that it was unreasonable to pin the failure of the LCS procurement on him as he claimed he was not the defence minister when the project was awarded,” he said.

Lim added that Zahid had no answer when it was pointed out he, as the defence minister in July 2011, had overturned his own decision as recommended by the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) to contract six Dutch-made Sigma LCS and chose the Scorpene manufacturer’s six French-made Gowind LCS within three days without consulting the navy, the end user.

“In fact, the RM9 billion LCS was so contractor-centric instead of end user-driven, that the Navy never knew that the decision had been overturned until informed by the contractor.

“No wonder the then head of the Royal Malaysian Navy, Admiral Abdul Aziz Jaafar said in one of his 10 letters of protest — five to the defence minister and two to the prime minister which were all ignored — that “there is no precedent of the design being decided by the main contractor and not the end user”.

Abdul Aziz had said “something was gravely wrong” as the navy and not the contractor should be setting the terms of the LCS contract but the Royal Malaysian Navy was “fighting a losing battle”.

“Can Zahid now explain?

“Is this reason why Umno Youth is in favour of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the LCS scandal, while he himself is against it, although he had had not declared it publicly?” he said.

Lim claimed the unusual event where the defence minister sided with the contractor against the end user, the RMN, is not only unprecedented in world naval history, but made nonsense of the 2020 Royal Malaysia Navy master plan to have five LCS by now.

He said that anyone perusing the declassified reports on the LCS scandal would be troubled by the question why the defence minister at that time overturned his own decision to side with the contractor against the end user, the Royal Malaysian Navy, in the largest naval procurement in the nation’s history.

“Was Zahid ordered by Najib, who was then the prime minister and the finance minister, to do so?” he asked.

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