No Plan To Release White Paper On Defence

The government has no plan to come up with a White Paper on Defence aimed at giving a transparent explanation on certain incidents, said the Prime Minister today.

In fact, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also the Defence Minister, said the government had never released any government policy through the White Paper.

He said this in a written reply to Liew Chin Tong (DAP-Bukit Bendera) at the Dewan Rakyat today.

Liew wanted to know what was the problem or difficulty for the government in releasing the White Paper on Defence.

The White Papers released by the government so far were on the Militant Communist Threat (1966), Birth of Communist Threat (1971), Communists in Sarawak (1972), Memali Incident (1986), Bumiputera Malaysia Finance (BMF) – Hong Kong (1986), Ops Lalang (1987) and Malaysia’s Economic Status (1996).

Apart from that, Abdullah said the Defence Ministry was releasing the public edition of National Defence Policy which featured, among others, defence relations, expenditure, industry, science and technology and security issues.

The limited edition for the Armed Forces and the Defence Ministry have been released earlier.

BERNAMA