One clear thing in regard to the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) scandal for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) valued at RM6 billion and left uncompleted is that it involves the taxpayer’s money, similar to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd case.
If some were still unclear, let this writer reemphasise that taxpayers’ money refers to our money deducted from our monthly wage for the contributions and responsibility towards the nation.
The government was responsible for regulating and managing our taxes, which was done through a special agency called the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).
Taxes were created to ensure the national asset was sufficient for development, health, safety, training and education.
Those were our contributions and charity to the sustainability of our nation and government.
Those were still our contributions, whether we did it voluntarily or by force.
Thus, when the revenues of our contribution to the sustainability and survival of our nation were misused, we as responsible taxpayers and citizens must be the first to rise and question any discrepancies regarding our monetary contributions.
The point is that we cannot remain idle and do nothing.
We cannot fully entrust the authorities blindly.
We have the right to voice out and question what the government has done with our contributions.
In the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) case, with RM6 billion of taxpayers’ money dissipated with no ship completed and delivered to the government, it is a must and an obligation for us to question how all of this could happen.
We are obligated to question where the responsible check and balance administration are, the body that was supposed to be supervising this project.
We are also obligated to question what the board of directors are doing sitting on their puffed chairs with their paid monthly allowance from the government.
Are they not supervising such a mega project when billions of ringgits were withdrawn with no sight of the vessels?
Do they not feel guilty for not questioning why such an amount of progress money should be issued without development to the project?
It is clear that something is not right.
However, once again, no one questioned it besides the Navy Chief.
Yet, his questions went unanswered.
Now, it is probably that the money will never be seen again, just like the 1MDB funds of billions relished by the perpetrators.
But by questioning the inconsistency, at the very least, we can prevent the same woes from happening again in the future.
If we stay quiet, unbothered, and meek in not commending and forcing the authorities to take action against the embezzlement, the same mistake will repeat, not once but continuously by those who feel they are bigger and mightier than the voice of the people – citizens who pay their taxes.