WISMA PERTAHANAN, Feb 8 – A ‘tired and emotional’ Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi assured Malaysians that his ministry was doing everything it could to prevent a recurrence of leakages of national secrets to foreign countries.
“Fortunately for Malaysia, we have a ‘lean and mean’ intelligence team that managed to nab the culprits before too much damage was done.
We are examining security at all levels in the ministry and are putting in place measures to remedy the situation. We may be ‘a day late and a dollar short,’ but it’s ‘better to be late than never.’”
One of the measures proposed by Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad to combat the ‘cloak and dagger’ international arena was the installation of a hall of mirrors and a smoke generator in his office.
“Essentially we are employing a ‘smoke and mirrors’ strategy against would-be enemies. I can guarantee you that foreign agents who enter my office with the intent of stealing our secrets will be caught in a situation of ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea.’
There is no where for them to run or hide in this game of ‘cat and mouse.’ We will catch them and we will crush them. There is no room for errors, and there can only be ‘the quick and the dead’ when ‘all is said and done.’”
Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad also noted that it was important to react firmly to this latest crisis embroiling the Defence Ministry as security issues were its ‘bread and butter,’ and that this crisis was ‘one too many’ in the wake of the theft of the Air Force’s F-5 jet engines.
As for the foreign agents who were ‘caught with their fingers in the cookie jar,’ he said that the Malaysian government has decided to practice a policy of ‘live and let live,’ but that his ministry would ‘take no prisoners’ in its treatment of similar cases in the future.
“I have this message to foreign agents who think they can outsmart us: ‘fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.’”
The Petai notes that Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad had been punctuating his press conference with plenty of air quotes, and that military men in the room have been struggling to keep a straight face.