Make Diplomacy The First-line of Malaysia's Defence BA Hamzah

The ongoing process of producing a defence white paper that the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) initiated since December last year should not be hampered by the current economic slowdown in the country. The White Paper on Defence (WD) is essentially a negotiating document primarily with the Ministry of Finance which sets out the concepts and guiding principles for future defence planning for the next two planning cycles or more, from 2020 onwards. The white paper on defence is structurally different, from say, the recently published white paper on the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) which investigated the mismanagement of funds and other forms of misdeeds in the organisation. The core concern of the WD, apart from engaging the rakyat and other Government agencies, is to justify a budget for the future development of the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF).

Concepts like pegging the defence spending as a per centage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should find its way into the WD. Under the pegging system, the defence budget is a function of the economic performance. The more revenue the Government has, the more money it will spend on national defence. This pegging principle will allow greater certainty, among others, in policy planning.  

Singapore pegs its defence expenditure between 4-6 per cent of GDP. We propose the defence spending for Malaysia to be fixed at 3 per cent of the GDP. This ratio is twice higher than the expenditure for defence in 2019. Since 1960, the Government gave Mindef on overage 3.5 per cent of GDP as budget. However, since 2015 the annual allocation for Mindef is around 1.5 per cent, among the lowest in the region.

The second guiding principle to consider is for the rakyat to understand that Malaysia has three theatres to defend: Peninsula Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. A large expanse of sea (718 nautical miles between Kuantan and Labuan) separates the Peninsula from Sabah and Sarawak, part of which goes through foreign waters. Without friendly relations with the immediate neighbours and adept diplomacy, reinforcing the troops in three operational theatres during crisis can be nightmarish even with adequate naval and airpower. Hence, the need to sharpen military- diplomacy skill among the officers and soldiers to deal more effectively with their counterparts in the region. Such skill can complement the role of diplomats at Wisma Putra.

Besides supporting the three-theatre command system, the defence of the nation must not be left to the soldiers alone. National defence is the responsibility of every citizen. Call it comprehensive defence or what, the first seed of patriotism must be planted at home and reinforced at schools and the entire society must be mobilised to support the military at all times. The emphasis for comprehensive defence is education-the first-line of defence. The syllabus at schools and Universities must reflect the need to involve all rakyat in the defence of our nation.

The third principle is for Mindef to get use to operating in a more challenging cyber terrain besides the usual land, sea and air domains. The cyber space is the new frontier for security and geopolitics as some roque states and non-state actors (including their proxies and false flags) have the means to quietly undermine the security of a nation without firing a shot.

The militarisation of the cyber space is here to stay. In 2007, for example, a series of cyber-attacks on the computer networks in Estonia crippled the essential/critical services in the country within hours. Since then, the world has witnessed similar incidents of cyber-attacks including the use of the malware, the Stuxnet, to cripple the Iranian nuclear power enrichment facility in 2007. More recently, there have been a number of security data breaches resulting from random cyber-attacks in the world. Most countries, including Malaysia, store critical data in computers making it easy for determined hackers to breach.

Although Malaysia has identified ten critical national information (CNI) infrastructures to be protected and preserved at all times, it calls for more investment, coordination, enforcement and an active response strategy across the board at the national, state, corporate and the community levels. There should be more clarity in terms of governance as who should be doing what in CNI. The roles of the MAF in CNI must be clearly defined. For example, what should the MAF do if an external party were to sabotage the power grid in the country-should the military be called in to deal with the matter?

Since cyber security threats are transnational in nature, managing the security challenges in the cyber domain requires regional and international cooperation. The fourth principle calls for greater cooperation among the like-minded nations in the region. For instance, there should be greater effort in developing the rules and norms in the cyber space among the member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to strengthen regional cooperation, to avoid “reprisal” in cases of genuine mistakes. Much of the current problems with neighbours in the region can be resolved through diplomacy rather than the use of force.

Currently, the nation faces geopolitical uncertainties in the region which have a bearing on the defence posture of the country. Besides managing geopolitical uncertainties, from time to time, the MAF is required to assist other agencies, for example, in dealing with national calamities, refugees, illegal immigrants, violence at sea, including piracy and sea robbery, terrorism, illegal fishing and a host of other non-traditional military threats. Clearly, the MAF can do with more money to buy the relevant assets and to train the manpower to undertake these non- core tasks.

As a small nation, Malaysia should step up diplomacy as the first line of defence in the region.

The military needs the right equipment and technology to be credible. Sadly, over the years, the budget to procure new equipment and maintenance of the existing technology has not kept pace with time and new threats facing the nation. Without the new state- of- the- art technology to replace aging equipment, the Royal Malaysian Navy and the Royal Malaysian Air Force, for example, will be severely handicapped in their task to protect the national interests from hostile forces. Fortunately, to their credit, the top brasses at Mindef are keenly aware of the current economic situation and its impact on military spending.