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Thursday, July 10, 2014

“ESSCOM Restructuring Not Good Enough - Dr. Jeffrey”

KOTA KINABALU - “The revamp of ESSCOM to improve Sabah security in the face of mounting public criticisms of Esscom’s failures amidst repeated kidnappings and cross-border incursions is good but not good enough" said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief, in response to PM Najib’s announcement of Esscom’s restructuring.

The chain of command in the revamp is still unclear.   If the police is now in the lead, does that mean that Esscom’s Director-General is now redundant?

Who is going to be ultimately responsible and answerable to Sabah’s security?
What is the Chief Minister’s role and responsibility as Chairman of Sabah State security?
What about the role of Esscom’s Director-General?

PM Najib must remember that the threats to national, internal and border security lie within and not just outside Sabah state.

The hundreds of thousands of foreigners, if not more, with ICs and MyKads who are now employed in all levels of functionaries including the law enforcement agencies are a ticking “time-bomb”.

The issuance of the dubious ICs and MyKads were conclusively proven in the RCI hearings.    They were further proven beyond any reasonable doubt with the arrests of fake Sabah ICs of security guards, taxi drivers and now of suspected militants in the Peninsula.

The recent 2 suspected militants said to be from Kg. Titingan, Tawau, Sabah (but their residency was denied by the village headman), and the arrests of naval and security personnel suspected of terrorist-links are just the tip of the ice-berg.

How is the federal government going to tackle and deal with these potential dangers without getting the RCI Report and its proposed recommendations implemented?

Public engagement is good but how is public engagement to be operationalized?
What are the government’s measure of success or performance indicators?
How much money is involved in this restructuring?

Why isn’t the government considering the establishment of Sabah’s own Homeland Security Ministry and Department to assist in maintaining and ensuring Sabah’s homeland security?

The current insecurity, security threats, kidnappings and cross-border incursions are caused by the federal government’s own policies and actions by aiding and arming Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines and by wrongfully issuing Malaysian ICs to illegal immigrants for political purposes.

Sabah’s economy particularly the tourism industry are adversely affected.   While Sabah and Sabahans are bearing the brunt of the security breaches, they have spread to the Peninsula.
It is high time for the federal government to be more transparent in its plans including through ESSCOM to tackle the security problems and illegal immigrants issues in Sabah and not treat them as minor problems or as public relations exercises.   Time is running out fast as the clock on the time-bomb continues to tick away.

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