This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on December 6, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: It was a case of “he said, she said” at the sidelines of the Dewan Rakyat yesterday on the issue of the stationing of Malaysian troops in Yemen without cabinet approval over a three-year period at a cost of RM14 million.

Former defence minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein claims the troops were not sent to participate in the Saudi Arabia-led alliance’s combat against Yemeni troops.

Rather, it was a pre-emptive measure to protect Malaysians in the region, considering the evacuation of Malaysian citizens in Ops Yemen I in April 2015, he said.

Speaking to reporters, Hishamuddin argued that the by-passing of the cabinet is justified by the fact that the matter was under the purview of the National Security Council (NSC).

Hishammuddin confirmed that the troops sent under Ops Yemen II were “not on active duty” and were not deployed for combat.

He went on to call on the relevant parties to “declassify secret government information” so that the “ministers will know how many lives of Malaysian students in Yemen have been saved by the Malaysian troops”.

“According to my sources, our student count [in Yemen] is more than 763. Now they have called back our troops.

“Form a formal investigation,” said Hishammuddin. “They forgot about the NSC. Ask the [Malaysian] External Intelligence [Organisation] (MEIO) research. Ask the Special Branch. They are the government [so they should be able to confirm].”

“Ask them what actually we do. But they must declassify the information because it is [of] national interest,” he said.

“They [the current leaders of the government] need to know what NSC is. I don’t think they know what the government is all about,” he added.

On Monday, Deputy Defence Minister Liew Chin Tong revealed that Hishammuddin did not seek cabinet approval for the deployment of Malaysian troops and military assets to assist the Arab Alliance’s soldiers in their battle against Yemeni soldiers within Saudi Arabia.

Ops Yemen II took place between June 2015 and September 2018, when troops were deployed on a three-month rotation basis over a total of 12 rotations.

Liew yesterday reiterated that the Malaysian troops were deployed to assist the Saudi-led alliance.

“No one disputed Ops Yemen I because that is for the evacuation of Malaysians. Ops Yemen II is in breach of our international policy as a neutral nation,” he said.

He, however, refused to comment on Hishammuddin’s statement that the troops were not deployed for tactical or combat operations, and instead asked the former defence minister to bring the matter up in the Dewan Rakyat.

Describing Ops Yemen II as a “big” operation, Liew insisted that such operations should have been brought to the cabinet as it involves allocation of funds.

On concerns over the continued presence of Malaysian citizens in Yemen despite the return of Malaysian troops from the region, Liew said: “These Malaysians have no intention to come home”.