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Coming clean on combat ship fiasco a risky gambit for PM Ismail, Umno
Decision to break silence widely seen as bid by Malaysian leader to distance himself from implicated Umno officials
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Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's pledge to carry out a public and transparent probe into the alleged misappropriation of hundreds of millions of dollars in a naval shipbuilding project is a high-risk gambit that could backfire on ruling party Umno and the government.
Defence contractors, retired military officials and Umno politicians said that the ministerial decision on Wednesday would lift the lid on the inner workings of Malaysia's defence procurement industry, which has long been a source of patronage for powerful vested interest groups linked to Umno. Six littoral combat ships (LCS) were commissioned in 2011 for RM9 billion (S$2.8 billion) without open tender, to be built by Boustead Naval Shipyard and delivered from 2019.
