Pictures of the launch event in Lumut, Perak, have been making the rounds on social media. Netizens have claimed a fully commissioned ship is seen in the pictures.

However, Kamarulzaman, who was at the launch, said the ship was not fully complete at the time.

“It has long been tradition and practice for the navy to launch and name a warship before it is fully completed,” he said in a statement.

“In fact, this is also a common practice in other countries.”

Kamarulzaman cited the testimony of navy captain Azhar Jumaat in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report, which also stated that it was tradition to launch and name a ship before its completion.

He said any claims that the launch was intended to deceive the public were “untrue”.

“The ship at the launch event in Lumut was a real LCS unit that was under construction, not a dummy,” he said. “All this was explained during the last PAC session.”

The LCS project has come under much scrutiny after PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh recently revealed that not a single ship had been completed although Putrajaya had spent RM6 billion on the project, which was given to Boustead Naval Shipyard through direct negotiations.

Meanwhile, in his testimony to the PAC, Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation Bhd CEO Sharifuddin Md Zaini Al-Manaf said the mast on the ship at the 2017 launch event was a “waste of money”.

“It did not serve any purpose,” he said.

“It does look nice and may give the impression that the vessel is more beautiful than it was meant to be (but) it was a cost that BNS had to absorb.”