GE13: Najib hypocritical on Sabah security -- Jeffrey

KOTA KINABALU:  The State Reform Party (STAR) says the caretaker prime minister is being hypocritical in his attitude towards the security Sabah.

STAR's Sabah chairman, Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, saying this in statement here also pooh-poohed Datuk Seri Najib Razak's assurance in a speech in Bongawan yesterday that only Barisan Nasional can defend Sabah from external threats, and ridiculed Najib's call for Sabah voters "to defend their sovereignty against the opposition."

"When did the opposition become a threat to the nation?" Jeffrey demanded. "What we need is for the people to eject and defend themselves against the corrupt and power-abusing BN government.

"Najib is deliberately twisting facts. The one to defend a Malaysian state or the nation is not BN, not a political party but the government of Malaysia," Jeffrey said. "To say that only BN can provide such a defense is nonsensical because no political party or coalition in Malaysia has any police force or army. The police and the army belong to the people of Malaysia, not to BN!

"National defense is carried out by the government, and when the opposition takes over the government, then the new government will be in charge of defense, and Barisan Nasional, which then will be in the opposition will have no power to carry our national defense!

"It's regrettable that Najib can politicize national defense this way as if the security forces will follow the BN into the opposition when it loses Putrajaya!" Jeffrey added.

He also took exception to Najib's hints that the opposition maybe involved in the recent Lahad Datu intrusion, saying that it is Umno which had numerous contacts with Jamalul and Esmael Kiram, inviting them to the Umno general assembly as guests of honour.

"The PM had also been slow and indecisive in handling the intrusion, wasting weeks with negotiation when the right action would have been to attack and arrest," Jeffrey said. "The country suffered in terms of international respect and this indecisiveness led to the death of so many members of the Malaysian security forces which could have been avoided. Now, Najib is expressing grief over those deaths because of his own mistake.

"Let us not forget that the ex-OCPD of Lahad Datu, Khamis Daming, had revealed that for years the federal government had ignored his pleas for help in strengthening the weak defense preparedness in Lahad Datu," Jeffrey added. "Daming had said 'If only KL had listened' pointing out that the Lahad Datu police never had sufficient equipment and their four-wheel drive vehicles always broke down and the petrol boats were in dire condition, among numerous defense weaknesses and neglect.

"The federal government under the BN acted too late, and only after loss of lives and property. What is also sad is the fact that the East Coast towns such as Kunak had for years been the free ports of sort, because foreigners could come and go without security checks or immigration clearance. Then, people from the southern Philippines could enter Sabah with complete ease as if they were not foreigners at all.

"As far as defense is concerned I believe the opposition, when in power, would be able to monitor and beef up security a lot better than what is being done by the BN.

"The PM shouldn't be making statements about security to frighten Sabahan voters into voting for the BN. This behavior on the part of the PM seems to confirm the accusation that the Lahad Datu intrusion was staged to frighten the people into supporting the BN, and that there is was lot of sandiwara in the whole affair," Jeffrey claimed.