KOTA KINABALU: The repeated official response that “Sabah’s maritime border is difficult to defend” each time an incident takes place on the east coast is stoking an already smoldering fire of anger here.
Former chief minister Yong Teck Lee had enough when the excuse was offered once again yesterday for Friday’s incident which saw the death of a foreign tourist and the kidnapping of another.
“It is not the long coastline to be blamed. It is the complacency of officials, lack of logistical assets like speed boats and other resources, lack of materials and personnel, lack of urgency, lack of intelligence about the potential intruders.
“Most of all, it is the lack of being held responsible when things go wrong,” he said in statement here on Sunday.
Yong said senior federal government officials were being let off the hook too easily for security breaches whenever an incident occurred and for which they would immediately trot out the standard excuse of “long coast line”.
“Nobody blamed our long coast line when Petronas exploited our vast oil and gas resources at sea. No one worried about the long coastline when our fishery and marine resources are tapped to the full.
“With the exploitation of our marine and undersea natural resources, the government has a constitutional duty to protect the same maritime area, the islands and people from harm,” he said.
Yong also pointed out that neither the British (colonial government) nor the Malaya governments had ever offered the excuse in 1963.
“They didn’t say they could not secure Sabah because of the long coastline.
“On the contrary, security was the first and foremost reason used to convince Sabahans to help form Malaysia. Sabah’s coastline is still the same as it was in 1963. The coast line has not grown longer.
“Now that Malaysia has been formed, the federal government cannot run away from its duty to protect our shores,” he said.
Pom Pom closer than Sipadan
Yong was commenting on the latest armed intrusion at Pom Pom island off Semporna that has left one foreign dead and another abducted.
He said the authorities were so eager to find excuses for the latest incident that they forgot that Pom Pom island is much closer to the Sabah mainland than the world famous Sipadan Island.
Yong, who is also Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president, said government officials have been having a field day “shooting themselves in the foot when commenting on the incident”.
“The Defence Minister (Hishammuddin Hussein) still had the audacity to say the security has not been breached when in fact eight gunmen armed with high powered rifles had attacked an island within 1km from a police base and got away.
“The Home Minister (Zahid Hamidi) however, remains embarrassingly silent,” he said.
Yong also took the Eastern Sabah Security Commission (ESSCOM) director Mohammad Mentek to task for saying that the incident at Pom Pom was unrelated to the intrusion by militants from the Southern Philippines at Kg Tanduo, Lahad Datu in February.
“Since the police are still investigating, how can the ESSCOM director say who is or is not behind the attack?
“Before his retirement, the ESSCOM director should speak up on the shortcomings and disappointments faced by his powerless office,” said Yong.
The confused response by the authorities has left them open to more accusations and criticism of incompetence, he said, noting how national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar had named the Al-Qaeda- linked terrorist group Abu Sayyaf as prime suspects in direct contradiction with the authorities earlier statements that armed groups were not responsible.
Yong also said the IGP’s statement that the Malaysian Armed Forces are being asked to beef up security in the area was also “most confusing”.
“Hasn’t the area been fully secured in the first place as assured repeatedly by ESSCOM, by the Sabah Chief Minister and Tourism Minister, by the ministers of Defence and of Home Affairs, by the army and police top brass?” he asked.
He also dismissed official categorization of Pom Pom Island as a remote isolated place.
“From the Putrajaya, it might be seen as a remote area at the furthest point away from Malaya. But from Sabah’s point of view, it is a thriving government-licensed tourist resort providing livelihood to many Sabahans,” he said.
Pom Pom Island is about 30km from Semporna town or about 30 minutes away by boat and is one of the popular dive destinations in the district.
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