LETTERS: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been chosen as the 10th prime minister, leading a unity government to move Malaysia out of economic woes.
The next few days will be exciting as we wonder who will be the new defence minister.
Will it be the previous minister or a fresh face?
However, regardless of who becomes minister, the last four years have witnessed the rise of the Defence Ministry and the armed forces, proving that they have remained committed to the government.
In this regard, it is relevant that the ministry and armed forces continue to strengthen their institution.
By doing so, regardless of which party the minister represents, the institutions of the ministry and armed forces remain intact.
Personalities come and go, but the institutions of Malaysia's defence that we uphold stay where they should be.
With this new mandate, Malaysia should take the opportunity to be, once again, at the forefront of the Asean Defence Ministerial Meeting, an organisation that was mooted by Malaysia in 2010.
Malaysia should engage and participate in all exercises in the seven cores of the ADMM.
They include maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster management, peacekeeping operations, military medicine, humanitarian mine action and cyber security.
To achieve this, Malaysia needs to upgrade its military assets to be on a par with others in the region.
Understandably, Malaysia is recovering economically from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, our military assets should at least meet the minimum requirements.
Improving our military assets will boost our border security, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, and will assist the local defence industry and make the industry more sustainable.
Another concern is improving Malaysia's government defence integrity index (GDI) ranking, which was given a "D" last year.
All of the above require strong leadership at the ministerial level.
The Defence White Paper released in 2020 has provided the blueprint, and there is no harm if we go back to basics in improving our defence strategy, structure, assets and manpower.
There is no better time than now.
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF DEFENCE AND SECURITY (MiDAS)
Defence Ministry, Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times