KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu said today he has instructed the Armed Forces to review the current trend of granting honorary military titles such as “Captain” or “Major” to the public.

The minister known as Mat Sabu said this is needed to maintain the Forces’ image, and the decision is supported by many of its veterans.

“We don’t want the public to abuse military uniforms. I’ve given instructions to review the habit of giving military titles or uniforms to the public or politicians so easily. We want to minimise this as much as possible.

“The military is the military. The veterans have voiced their support for his review — where those truly deserving will be awarded with an honorary military title,” he told the press in a session here.

Veterans’ group PATRIOT had recently asked Mohamad to not take any honorary title nor wear its uniforms unlike previous ministers.

In addition, Mohamad also said the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) will establish an investigations committee to look into any scandals involving the military, including the purchase of the Scorpene submarines under the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

“We will establish an investigations committee and this committee’s report will be discussed in Cabinet. The result of the report and any recommendations will be submitted to the government. It is too early to comment on the committee.

“The committee will investigate all issues that the public have raised. We will not be focussing purely on only one issue such as the Scorpene deal,” he said.

The committee will also work to ensure that the ministry is free from corruption as this would have an extremely negative impact on the capabilities of Malaysia’s military while simultaneously weakening the nation’s defence.

Mohamad also promised to ensure that Mindef will no longer be the cash cow for politicians by eradicating corruption and ensuring that financial management and procurement will be conducted according to government procedures.

He also has plans on reviewing his ministry’s procurement process to see whether it needs improvement or not.

“If we need to improve or there’s room for improvement, we will improve it. If everything is doing well, we will continue it,” he said.