M-4 procurement:overview

It seems that MAF acquisition of M4 is deemed as a bad choice by general malaysian people(of course;if the decision is made by BN government,it IS a bad decision.What the heck with the mentality anyway).Recently,a report which said that M4 failure cost serviceman life in A-stan.It wouldn't be a surprise people will bring this issue and questioned MAF M4 procurement without even doing some kind of research to support their claim.

from the article
http://www.nola.com/military/index.ssf/2009/10/m4_suspected_in_deaths_of_us_s.html

"My weapon was overheating," McKaig said, according to Cubbison's report. "I had shot about 12 magazines by this point already and it had only been about a half hour or so into the fight. I couldn't charge my weapon and put another round in because it was too hot, so I got mad and threw my weapon down."
The soldiers also had trouble with their M249 machine guns, a larger weapon than the M4 that can shoot up to 750 rounds per minute.
Cpl. Jason Bogar fired approximately 600 rounds from his M-249 before the weapon overheated and jammed the weapon.
Bogar was killed during the firefight, but no one saw how he died, according to the report.

    It should be noted that the main factor that contributed to the malfunction is human factor.Apparently the person who handles the weapon become too excited and pulled the trigger too long.which resulted in overheating and,obviously,weapon jam.
Long story short,the main keyword here is sustained rate of fire.

Other than that,one need to consider about operating theatre too.Currently the American are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan,which is known to be hot and dusty.Among other critics are tendency to pick up dust and become too hot.Malaysia aren't as hot,dusty and dry like those countries(Thank God for that),thus M4 should serve us well with less hassle,just like it's predecessor,M16A1.Plus Malaysian terrain offers little opportunity for long range engagement as well(we fight either in the jungle,plantation,or urban area.In Afghanistan,US/NATO frequently engaged Talibans in large,arid, open area,thus they always retaliate beyond their rifle effective range.

Advantages of M4 

M4 is an extremely modular and flexible rifle around(A plus side of US MIL-STD system).Everything can be configured and re-configured according to the requirement(from installing optical sight and foregrip to changing the entire upper receiver to have a completely different rifle) without significantly doing some gunsmithing.It will also ease the logistic,up to some degree(because instead of giving a different weapon for different purpose,M4 can be configured to fill the need,thus become a jack of all trade of such).Overall M4 is a battle proven weapon and instead of opting a unproven weapon,why just not stick with whatever that works and slowly doing R&D for our own rifle system that perfectly(or almost perfectly) fit our requirement.