Sea King @ Nuri

SEA KING @ NURI

Tragedi ini dapat dielakkan sekiranya Kementerian Pertahanan telah mengambil langkah-langkah yang wajar untuk menyelamatkan nyawa para anggota wira-wira kita. Tetapi malangnya, tiada tindakan yang sewajarnya diambil menyebabkan negara kehilangan wira, isteri kehilangan suami, anak kehilangan ayah, ayah dan ibu kehilangan anak.

Ramai yang tidak tahu, sebenarnya Sea King @ Nuri telah dibeli oleh Kerajaan pada tahun 1968. Dalam tempoh masa 39 tahun sebanyak 18 kejadian telah berlaku dan hasilnya 95 kematian telah berlaku. Kejadian yang paling mengerikan berlaku pada 14 November 1989 apabila 21 orang termasuk 15 anggota Pasukan Polis Hutan terbunuh selepas Sea King @ Nuri terhempas antara Gunung Gerah dan Gunung Bilah di sempadan Kelantan-Perak. Sepatutnya keputusan dibuat untuk meletakkan Sea King @ Nuri di muzium tentera tetapi kita gagal berbuat sedemikian menyebabkan kemalangan terus berlaku. Malah kita masih tidak sedar diri kerana masih akan terus menggunakan Sea King @ Nuri sehingga ia digantikan dengan helicopter baru. [TPM kata perolehan tersebut akan dibuat secara tender antarabangsa menimbulkan persoalan kerana selama ini pembelian kemudahan/peralatan tentera dibeli secara rundingan terus atas justifikasi, keselamatan negara tetapi kenapakah perolehan helicopter baru ini hendak dibuat secara tender? Apakah kerana Razak Baginda berada di belakang pintu besi jadi tidak ada pegawai Kerajaan yang layak untuk membina spesifikasi atau tidak ada orang yang dipercayai oleh Menteri Pertahanan untuk mendapatkan "komisyen" bagi pembelian secara rundingan terus]

Walaupun keadaan cuaca dipersalahkan namun alasan tersebut bukannya dapat diterima oleh semua orang yang boleh berfikir secara rasional. Mungkin orang Pekan akan percaya kerana mereka masih menghormati Tun Abdul Razak.

Sebuah helicopter yang berusia 39 tahun sudah tentu akan berdepan dengan pelbagai masalah dan ketidakupayaan peralatan mekanikal untuk terus beroperasi di dalam keadaan cuaca yang tidak menentu. Andainya cuaca menjadi faktor utama, kenapakah helicopter tersebut dibenarkan membuat penerbangan?

Doi-Moi sangat berharap agar kejadian yang memilukan ini tidak berulang lagi dan sepatutnya Kerajaan mengambil pendirian untuk tidak membenarkan sebarang penerbangan menggunakan Sea King @ Nuri bagi mengelakkan sebarang kejadian lagi. Malangnya Kerajaan tidak mempunyai keupayaan untuk mengambil keputusan tersebut dan berselindung dengan alasan kononnya tidak ada helicopter lain untuk digunakan sebagai alternatif.

Satu persoalan yang ingin ditujukan kepada Menteri-menteri Kabinet Malaysia ialah, apakah Y.B. Menteri berani menggunakan Sea King @ Nuri untuk tujuan rasmi? Kalau anda tidak mempunyai keberanian untuk berbuat sedemikian kerana sayangkan nyawa, maka anda juga haruslah sayangkan nyawa pejuang-pejuang kita supaya tidak mati begitu sahaja.

Tertanya juga kenapa PM Malaysia yang ke 5 perlu membeli kapal terbang baru bernilai RM50 juta untuk kegunaan rasmi bila kita masih ada 20 Sea King @ Nuri? Kalau pembelian itu boleh dilakukan dalam masa yang singkat secara senyap kenapa kita memerlukan tempoh yang lama untuk menukar Sea King @ Nuri?

Secular State

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is a secular state, insists the MCA.

It said the position was clear as evidenced by numerous historical documents, including the Reid Report, the Cobbold Commission and a 1988 Supreme Court decision. After reviewing the documents used in the process of drafting the Federal Constitution, the party’s secretary-general, Datuk Ong Ka Chuan, said Malaysia was a secular state based on the consensus and social contract agreed upon by the nation’s forefathers."The documents showed that a secular state is the foundation of the formation of Malaya and this consensus was made by our forefathers," he said yesterday.He said this in response to the statement by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Monday that Malaysia is an Islamic nation that protects the rights of non-Muslims.

Citing an example, Ong said according to the Alliance’s memorandum to the Reid Commission dated Sept 27, 1956, it was stated on Page 19 that "The religion of Malaya shall be Islam. The observance of this principle shall not impose any disability on non-Muslim nationals professing and practising their own religion, and shall not imply the state is not a secular state." Ong said former prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj had said during a meeting on April 17, 1957, that "the whole constitution was framed on the basis that the federation would be a secular state".

Ong said notes prepared by the Colonial Office dated May 23, 1957, at the London Conference Talks mentioned that "the members of the Alliance delegation stressed that they had no intention of creating a Muslim theocracy and that Malaya would be a secular state".Additionally, Ong stated that when former MCA president, who was Finance Minister, Tun Tan Siew Sin spoke in parliament on July 10, 1957, in support of the Constitutional Bill, he said that although Islam would be the official religion, "this does not in any way derogate from the principle, which has always been accepted, that Malaya will be a secular state and that there will be a complete freedom to practise any other religion".Ong added that all these documents showed a true picture of Malaysia, which is a secular nation.

MCA central committee member and Kota Melaka MP Wong Nai Chee said Najib’s interpretation was "not in accordance with the spirit and intent of the Federal Constitution".He said that the issue of Malaya as a secular state was vigorously debated again during the 1962 Cobbold Commission before the entry of Sabah and Sarawak, forming Ma- laysia. "Again, the secular nature of Malaysia was reiterated as having been stated in the Reid Commission. The secular nature of our Federal Constitution has been the basis for our nation building since 1957 and reinforced in 1963.

"The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism president, Datuk A. Vaithilingam, urged the government and all Malaysians to respect the social contract agreed to in 1957.The council also strongly objected to attempts by the government to change the status quo.The Bar Council said that in the context of the country’s history and the constitution itself that proclaimed its supremacy, there was no doubt whatsoever that Malay- sia was a secular state.

"It is noteworthy that the prime minister in his speech delivered at the conference yesterday and in his propagating Islam Hadhari has never referred to Malaysia as an Islamic state," the council’s president Ambiga Sreeneva- san said. "It is time that the proposition that Malaysia is not secular (which is a rewriting of the constitution), be put to rest once and for all and that there is due recognition and reaffirmation of the clear legal and constitutional position that Malaysia is, and has always been, a secular state."

source: www.nst.com.my