Now since the factory has closed down  where do you think they will source for the parts? The parts are in India! Earlier this month, the Indian and Malaysian Prime Ministers envisaged greater defense co-operation between the two countries including purchase of MiG-29. "There is a possibility too that India will buy our MiG 29 aircraft for refit. We reciprocate by accepting spare parts for our Sukhoi aircraft program," Prime Minister Najib Razak told the media the end of a six-day visit to India on April 5 as quoted by Bernama news agency.

The Indian government has decided to send a team of the Indian Air Force to examine the MiG-29 fleet, which is being replaced by Malaysia, for its use. It will be a value purchase for the Indian Air Force which is short of hundreds of fighter jets since the cost of upgradation is expected to be minimal. "Malaysia is a friendly country. India has for years supported training of Malaysian pilots by positioning MiG-29 instructors. India has also supported the maintenance of these aircraft and provided spares.

India is quite conversant with the technical state of these aircraft. They may also come relatively cheap," said Air Marshal (Retd) Anil Chopra, the team leader of the MiG-21 upgrade project in Russia in the late 1990s. You must be off your rocker if you still think India will purchase these jets from Malaysia.

Vijay47: The obvious question is, “Why did Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mahathir say it?” Despite his now increasingly frequent forays into cunning and claims of bewildered innocence, Mahathir is not your run-of-the-mill Umno-type politician from the Malay boondocks. He is perhaps the most knowledgeable and astute of all our prime ministers, he knows what’s what and where it’s at. Yet he let loose at the United Nations, denied the truth he would have been so aware of and was deliberately provocative and offensive towards India.

“Invaded” is hardly a slip of the tongue, it was carefully chosen to portray an India embarking on bullying and subjugating poor and defenceless neighbours, Mahathir simply refused to acknowledge that Jammu and Kashmir are as much part of India as Perlis is of Malaysia.

But when we consider the hounds he is running with, the penny drops, Mahathir in his twilight years has decided to go along that path of racial and religious extremism. Let us look at his recent road map. Suddenly and for no discernible reason, he retreated from the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), mumbling something about a deep state threatening national well-being, placing himself on the same podium as the now Famous Four university professors or for that matter, almost all Malay professors.

Then we have his dalliance with a rogue like Zakir Naik and on an equally tangible level, not only did he attend that shameless Malay Dignity Congress, he made a particularly offensive speech, in the process of referring to Indians as “orang asing” (foreigners), disregarding his own origins.

Asked about the possibility, no, the probability of India hitting back, Mahathir incredulously said that New Delhi has not informed him of its intentions. Why on earth, or Kashmir, would India do that? Did he inform or ask for New Delhi’s leave when he made that speech at the UNGA?

Should Malaysia’s largest palm oil customer take its trade elsewhere, the biggest nose cut would be our own, including those of the hordes in Felda. Mahathir seems willing to let the house burn and the ship sink even if only to display support for dubious company like Turkey, Pakistan, and Muslim fanatics. Could this be evidence of a failing grip on reality? If it is, Mahathir would no longer earn our compassion.