A Case of ‘Ali Baba’ And the Forty Thieves

Remember the story ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ from the ‘1001 Arabian Nights’, which takes place in Baghdad during the Abbasid era?

One day, Ali Baba overhears a group of forty thieves visiting their treasure store in the forest. The treasure is in a cave, the mouth of which is sealed by magic.

It opens on the words “Open, Simsim” (commonly written as ‘Open Sesame” in English) and seals itself of the words “Close, Simsim” (Close Sesame). When the thieves are gone, Ali Baba enters the cave himself, and takes some of the treasures home.

To cut the story short, Ali Baba becomes wealthy. But Kassim, his rich and greedy brother, who knows about the secret, goes to the cave to take more of the treasure, but in his greed and excitement over the treasures, forgets the magic words to get back out of the cave. The thieves found him there, and kills him.

Back in the present century, Ali Baba is not in the picture. The focus now is on the chief of the thieves, a Brigadier-General.

In the latest fiasco, a Brigadier-General and 40 other armed forces personnel were sacked late last year over their alleged involvement in the case of the missing RM50 million jet fighter engine belonging to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF).

Local newspapers reported about the theft of the engine which took place reportedly last year. It was reportedly sold to a foreign buyer when the Brigadier-General was the department head.

Local media said he may also be one of the four men whom Federal Commercial Criminal Investigation Department identified as the main players in the case.

The case is a big blow to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who has placed corruption second among the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the civil service.

Blogger Muhammad Arshad Raji, a retired army officer says “on hindsight, I believe that the government was wrong in keeping silence from public knowledge, this security related issue that has serious national and international repercussions.”

He says, the government will now have to bear the brunt of public odium, and also possibly the loss of public confidence in the government's future handling of serious security related issues. “

“Whatever reasons and justifications that the government has given now has little impact on building and reassuring public confidence, and this does not augur well for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s leadership.

Had the government acted promptly upon the theft being known in 2007, I believe public confidence would not have been badly eroded.”

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail has given his assurance that his chambers would go all-out to solve the disappearance of two F-5E fighter jet engines.

But Najib said there was no cover-up of the theft and sale of the RM50 million fighter jet engine last year.

He said the Defence Ministry and Royal Malaysia Air Force reported the theft to the police immediately after it was discovered and co-operated fully with the authorities to ensure that the matter was thoroughly investigated.

Najib said there would be a full investigation of the thefts, which happened in 2007 and 2008, when he was Defence Minister. However, opposition parties accused the government of covering up the incidents.

Lim Kit Siang, parliamentary leader of the opposition Democratic Action party, said the authorities had been “super slow” and claimed that the prime minister’s response had painted “a frightening picture of a government of thieves”.

In another development, Abdul Gani was quoted as saying that not one but two jet-fighter engines, each worth RM50 million, were stolen from the RMAF base in Sungai Besi.

Both engines served as power plants to the F-5E Tiger II fighter and RF-5E Tigereye reconnaissance jets.

The Attorney-General said the two engines were discovered stolen in May last year. RMAF had lodged a report with the police on Aug 4 last year.

The General Electric J85-21A engines, each worth about RM$50 million, were spares for the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s Northrop Grumman F-5E Tiger II fighters, which fly from the Butterworth air base near the country’s northern border with Thailand.

Defence Minister Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the engines and associated equipment were “believed to have been sent to a South American country” after being moved to the Sungai Besi air force base in Kuala Lumpur for maintenance.

The defence ministry would not identify the company or the country involved or comment on claims in the Malaysian media that the engines may have ended up in the Middle East.

The F-5 went out of production in 1989 but is still flown as a trainer aircraft by US forces and is in frontline or reserve service with many foreign air forces.

The defence ministry said several senior officers were being investigated.

Gen. Tan Sri Azizan Ariffin, chief of the armed forces, said the engine thefts might have been “the tip of the iceberg”, raising the possibility that other military equipment might also have disappeared.

What next?