DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng fired another salvo at Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein over the RM9 billion littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal, accusing him of treating it as a “joke”.

This came about after Hishammuddin yesterday said that, right up to the day of judgment, Lim will never say that he was a successful minister.

Hishammuddin has been trading blows with Lim, after the Bagan MP put Hishammuddin at the top of his list of failed ministers for presiding over the purchase of six LCS and other multibillion-ringgit defence procurement scandals.

In a statement today, Lim said full accountability for the LCS scandal is a “more important day than Hishammuddin or my judgement day”.

“By saying that my criticism shows that ‘If they don’t care about us, that means we didn’t do our work’ ignores public outrage that RM6.08 billion has been paid but not a single ship has been delivered,” Lim said.

“The public wants real answers by real ministers when national security can be compromised with naval assets undelivered despite paying so much.”

He said, to date, Hishammuddin has not provided a full explanation on why he approved such huge payments.

Meanwhile, Lim demanded Hishammuddin account for how he could witness the launch of the first uncompleted vessel in 2017, complete with a fake RM400,000 mast, which was discarded immediately after the ceremony.

“Further, can Hishammuddin justify why not a single person has been charged in court over the scandal, despite a full array of investigations by Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)?”

Lim said Hishammuddin’s “irresponsible answers” on a serious defence procurement matter would negatively impact Malaysia’s defence capabilities internationally.

“Hishammuddin should wake up and be serious in doing his job properly, or else let the whole world see his egregious failure as a defence minister.” – September 28, 2022.