Submerged Ambiguities

Sometime tomorrow, Lim Guan Eng and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is going diving in one of the two Scorpene submarines said to be costing Mindef some RM6.7billion in public funds.

Apparently the dive is to disprove allegations, urm, floating around that the submarines can’t dive.

Never mind the peripheral issues on the same purchase – the justification of having such purchases, the said hefty price we are paying for the subs, the alleged commission paid to local company Perimekar, the horrific murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya etc.

A multitude of issues which points to the bigger concern in the non transparent nature of the national defence spending.

Nope.

It seems that our first priority would be that of proving to the critics that the subs (Sub? Only one will be involved, correct?) are actually dive-able.

Such a profound PR exercise.

How deep should a dive be to prove that a sub can dive?

How long should it remain under water to prove that it can dive?

How many man hours do you need to ready the sub for this particular dive?

How much in public fund do you need for the one-off dive to prove that the sub can dive?

What will the dive prove other than the fact that submarine we bought which are supposed to be dive-able can indeed dive?

And will LGE go all “Eureka! It’s actually money well spent, guys!” after the monumental event? Doubt so.

It sure looks like an exercise of scoring a political point without tackling any of the core issues on the subs.

What’s next, then? A ride in the Pars 8x8 to prove that they are worth the said RM7.6billion for 257 units of the armoured personal carrier?

It’s the equivalent of scooping the frothy bits from a bubbly coffee or teh tarik.

Won’t tell you jackshit as to how sweet the real deal is.