IF not for our concerned fishermen and a diver, who alerted the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency into action, notorious China-registered grab dredger MV Chuan Hong 68, would in all likelihood continue looting World War 2 shipwrecks HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales, which sank in Malaysian waters in 1941 days after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour.
They may not know this, but they have just saved Malaysia's heritage from being plundered further by foreigners, with the help of greedy Malaysians. More importantly, the fishermen and the diver have helped put a stop to the desecration of the graves of 842 British sailors who lost their lives in WW2. We can't fault the British for calling it "The Great Grave Robbery".
News of the plundering desecration had outraged Britain. A loathsome act, was the British verdict of the affair. To care for just the steel and not for the souls of the dead must be the most despicable trait that the plunderers have inherited from capitalism. It is too easy to blame money for making men need it. The issue is men, and that, too, of certain traits. Never money.
But the plot thickens. This is not the first time MV Chuan Hong 68 was in Malaysian waters scavenging for steel. People familiar with steel say prewar steel fetches a high price, especially in the scientific industry.
Sources tell this newspaper that the notorious grab dredger was here eight years ago doing the same old plundering. How did it get away eight years ago? How was it allowed into Malaysian waters after all these terrible years?
This twin puzzle is for the Marine Department to answer and, by the looks of it, it is not doing a good job of it. MV Chuan Hong 68 was "permitted", not once but twice last year, through what the trade calls notices to mariners (NtM). An NtM is a notice issued by the Marine Department to alert mariners to keep clear of the area for safety reasons, and in these instances to steer clear of salvation operations.
But as mystery would have it, the NtMs are gone just as mysteriously as they appeared. Also expunged from the Marine Department's website, and possibly from record, is the latest "permit" that purportedly allowed the MV Chuan Hong 68 to conduct salvage operations in Kuantan waters where the alleged plundering of the British shipwrecks is said to have taken place.
Yes, "expunged" is our considered choice. No other word can explain the carefully desired disappearance. Unsurprisingly, investigators are on it. Early indications aren't pretty for the Marine Department. Investigators have found discrepancies in the permit issued by the department.
No surprise here. Malaysian public service has three fatal flaws: procurement, licensing and enforcement. Get the people and process wrong in the three, then malaise will be with Malaysia for long.
Historian Azlan Mohd Sharif, distressed to no end by the MV Chuan Hong 68 affair, has called on Johor to align the state's heritage law with the National Heritage Act 2005. We understand the historian's concern, but it is not the law which is at fault.
We have enough laws, many of them with the ferocious bite of a Rottweiler. Let's not fault the law when the failing is purely human. Make that some humans.