MUSHAARAF – BLATANTLY WRONG IN FACTS

By : Brigadier General (R) Dato Muhammad Arshad.

Come the month of June, I will be a 2 year old blogger. Actually, I started blogging after having known that a friend of mine i.e. retired Mej Dr. Rafick Khan Abd Rahman who owns a blog ‘rights2write’, has been writing to express his personal views over a myriad of issues, which he could not otherwise have done without his articles being edited, if he were to send his articles to the mainstream media.

I too have been writing and sending articles under the ‘Letters column’ of the New Straits Times, and my short letters too would be scrutinized by the editor. I also noted that if I were to send letters that are critical to the government, then my letters would end up in the waste paper basket. This was when I started to follow the foot-steps of retired Mej Dr. Rafick Khan, and to try my luck at blogging.

What I like most about blogging are the comments following the articles that I write. I read every piece of comment, and it is from these comments that I get to learn more about what I have written. I am not particularly concern about the language used by some commenter, but from the language they used, I can also make out the sort of person the commenter is, and understanding people’s character is one thing that I enjoy doing.

Here, I wish to draw the attention of my readers to an article that I posted on Friday, June 13th 2008 titled’ “The Madina Market Incident – A propaganda in its distasteful form”. I wrote the article rebutting what the former Pakistan’s President Pervez Mushaaraf wrote in his book, ‘In the Line of Fire’, in which he praised his troops for their daring exploits to save some Americans soldiers from being slaughtered by Somali fighters. Mushaaraf also commented that Pakistani troops were also involved in the ‘Black Hawk Down’ rescue efforts, but the Americans had failed to depict Pakistani troops heroic efforts in the movie.

I wrote an email to the Chief of Defence Force then i.e. Gen Tan Sri Aziz Zainal about this fake propaganda by Mushaaraf, where I told him that it was the Malaysian troops that were instrumental in the rescue of the trapped American soldiers; not the Pakistani troops as depicted by Mushaaraf in his book, and to put right the imperfections of Mushaaraf writings. I did not get any response; neither do I know whether my comments have been acted upon. If my comments have not been acted upon, then Mushaaraf has succeeded in telling a blatant lie to the world that the Pakistani troops were the heroes that had served the American soldiers from being slaughtered. From the story related to me by a Malaysian army officer involved in the rescue, the Pakistani troops were actually cowards and were never at the scene. (Please read my posting of June 13, 2008 for better understanding of the issue)

I would like to appeal to the present Armed Forces leadership to once again look into this matter, and to correct what I deem as a blatant lie by Mushaaraf, and worse still, dishonoring and denying the bravery of our Malaysian soldiers in Somalia, in the Madina Market incident. I would like to see a statement be made in the media, both print and electronic, to rebut Mushaaraf’s writings. Mushaaraf was wrong in facts, and it is our duty to correct it.

For the information of my readers too, my emails to the office of the President of Pakistan and the office of the Pakistan Chief of General Staff remained unanswered.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION