Malaysia rejects theory of swift Singapore triumph in war MALAYSIA, Monday, Jan 6, rejected a British military expert's analysis that Singapore's armed forces would swiftly triumph if a war erupted between the two countries.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Defence Minister Najib Razak addressed the issue after a weekend newspaper dredged up a conflict scenario detailed in a book more than two years ago.
The Malay Mail's report on "Defending the Lion City: The armed forces of Singapore" by Briton Tim Huxley, came as relations between Malaysia and its tiny but well-armed neighbour reached a low point amid several disputes.
The tabloid's sensational front page headline "War with Singapore, What if..." also followed a declaration by Mahathir in his New Year message to the nation warning any country that attacked Malaysia would get "a bloody nose."
Asked by reporters Monday why there was so much talk of war, Mahathir replied: "It is the press who keep on asking us. So we have to respond. I said whoever dares to try would get a bloody nose. That's all. Just a bloody nose. I never said war."
Asked specifically about the scenario of a swift Singapore victory attributed to Huxley, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies in London, Mahathir said: "Well, we'll see, the proof of the cake is in the eating, as they say.
"Basically it is the ground forces that count. Either you want to bomb the whole place up, or you have to fight on the ground.
"Germany had conquered France but in the end they had to give up. Japan conquered Malaysia and they had to give up. Why take other people's country?"
Earlier, Defence Minister Najib Razak dismissed Huxley's analysis of military capabilities only in terms of assets.
"We cannot accept the analysis nor any parties which try to undermine the capabilities of the Malaysia armed forces because we have wide experience and this was not taken into account," he said.
A chart published by the Malay Mail and sourced to Huxley's book showed that in 2000, Singapore had total armed forces of 350,000 to Malaysia's 145,000, 60 main battle tanks against none and three submarines to none.
Malaysia is in the process of upgrading its military hardware, however, and has announced plans to purchase tanks, submarines and new jet fighters.
Talk of war breaking out between the neighbours, although apparently relished by some parts of the Malaysian media, has been dismissed by security analysts.
"The outbreak of war is far away from the minds of the political leadership of the two countries," the executive director of the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre, Abdul Razak Baginda, told AFP.
Relations between the neighbours have often been prickly since Singapore became independent of the Malay Federation in 1965, and current disputes include the pricing of Malaysia's water supplies to the resource-poor city-state and ownership of a tiny islet off the coast.
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