LETTERS: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim promised to give priority to food security in the 2023 Budget. Besides food security, he should also revisit the budget for the military, which has not received its proper share for the last two decades.
When compared with our neighbours, the budget for the military is paltry. As a percentage of the gross national product, the budget for the armed forces has never exceeded 1.5 per cent in the last 20 years.
The only time where it exceeded four per cent of GDP was in 1981.
Singapore has been spending on average six per cent of its GDP for the military over the last two decades.
Its armed forces is projected to receive US$13 billion in 2023; US$13.8 billion in 2024; US$ 14.4 billion in 2025; US$15.1 billion in 2026; and US$15.8 billion in 2027.
At US$12.3 billion in 2022, Singapore's defence budget saw an increase of 7.4 per cent from 2021.
In comparison, the budget for the Malaysian armed forces has been hovering around US$3.8 billion with minimal annual increase in the last decade.
At 2.3 per cent of its GDP, Brunei spends more on defence than Malaysia.
Although as percentage of GDP, Indonesia's expenditure is lower than ours in 2021, it has been expanding at 11.52 per cent since 2002. In 2021, Indonesia spent US$8.3 billion on its military.
Another measure of defence spending is the annual expenditure per capita, that is the amount of money spent per soldier.
At US$1,884.9 per capita, Singapore leads the region and was the fourth largest in the world in 2021, said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The equivalent figure for Malaysia was US$122.50, slightly higher than that of Thailand and Indonesia.
Former defence minister Mohamad Sabu told Parliament in 2018 that Malaysia had the weakest navy and air force. He said several RMAF fighter jets suffered from poor maintenance.
Mohamad called for a bigger allocation for the armed forces.
Outgoing navy chief Admiral Tan Sri Mohd Reza Sany had also called on the government to increase the annual allocation for defence to 1.5 per cent of the GDP.
Implied in both statements are the persistence of low morale and poor leadership and their deleterious impact on national security.
I urge Anwar to not only give the military more money to buy equipment to defend and protect our national interests but also to pay attention to the plight of some 400,000 veterans.
A weak military and unhappy soldiers can do plenty of damage to the nation.
B.A. HAMZAH
Professor and research fellow, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times