Hi Admin,
Came across this on HWZ. Very curious allegations against an RMAF officer, this Major Kamarulzaman Ali, basically trying to stir shit between Singapore and Malaysia using a website called AirTimes. A netizen on HWZ linked this Major to Airtimes which had published an article with very verifiably fake news that an Apache helicopter belonging to Singapore was monitoring Malaysian ships by intruding into Malaysian airspace and threatening its sovereignty.
To support its claims, the article included a 2 minute long video of a helicopter flying and nothing else. No other explanations or any indications that it was really a Singapore helicopter. You watch the video and you make your own conclusions.
When making an allegation between two neighbouring countries in times sensitive times, it takes a very brave or a very stupid man to use such videos to make claims of an intrusion.
So anyway the netizen did a little digging on AirTimes and found the link to Major Kamarulzaman.
Turns out, when the netizen googled his name, you can find a person of a similar name called Major Kamarulzaman Ali who is purportedly from RMAF. There's actually an article from 2011 which named this Major as a Public Relations Officer with the Malaysian Royal Air Force. What are the odds that they might be the same person?
A lot of the content of this AirTimes website is carried on a Facebook page called 'Malaysian Military Power', whose objective appears to be to foster animosity between Malaysians and Singaporeans. Guess what the motto of 'Malaysian Military Power' is? Win With Words!
It is clear that no matter the state of the relationship between Malaysia and Singapore, we remain a vulnerable target for our neighbour. Politicians left, right, and centre, like they have done many times in our short history, will attempt to use and abuse us to serve their own political agendas. We have to learn to deal with it and not be so insecure and react to every provocation.
What's different in this case is that we don't often see the hand of the Malaysian civil servants working to stir tensions. This is possibly the first time that someone with the profile and rank like Major Kamarulzaman Ali is shown to be allegedly behind a platform that is purposely targeting Singapore
Even more disappointing was that the Malaysian government had committed to dialogue and de-escalating tensions just last week. With this bit of fake news alleging that Singapore was challenging Malaysia's sovereignty, you have to question the commitment of the Malaysian government towards dialogue. The article was mischievous. The less said about the video, the better because it was an insult to the intelligence of Malaysians and Singaporeans who are sophisticated enough to not fall for such cheap trickery.
As a Singaporeans with many Malaysian friend both here and in Malaysia, I surely hope that the politicians will not escalate the matter further. At the same time, I also hope that the civil servants also do their part to do what's right and ethical, for the good of both countries.
Fahmi
