The security of Sabah looks bleak in the long term as the current threats from “outside and within” are supplanted by “three additional time bombs planted by Putrajaya and Umno”, says Sabah State Reform Party (STAR) chairman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.
He said the “time bombs” that Putrajaya and Umno “knowingly, unknowingly or unwittingly” planted, pose a far greater threat to the security of the state than that posed by the separatists from the nationalist group Sabah-Sarawak Keluar Malaysia (SSKM).
He said it could even trigger the break-up of Malaysia.
“The export of Umno’s brand of race and religion and religious extremism and fanaticism is fanning Islamic militarism as seen from arrests of Isis (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) militants including from Sabah,” Kitingan said in response to the statement by Eastern Sabah Security Command's (Esscom) deputy director of intelligence ACP Hashim Justin on the two new threats faced by the command.
Kitingan said the export of Umno's brand of religion not only threatened the peace and harmony of multi-ethnic and multi-religious Sabah but was also fanning Isis fanaticism.
He said recent events in the peninsula showed “a growing talibanisation or misconceived arabisation as former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad puts it”.
“Now, it may be a sarong dress code and objections to music concerts.
“In time to come, the dress code for women will not be tudung or veil but mandatory burqa and the banning of all non-Islamic music and barring of women to travel unaccompanied by another male relative.”
With the demographic landscape of the state doctored to turn Sabah into a Muslim-majority state, the number of Muslim lawmakers in the state legislative assembly and growing support from hardline PAS, there is no guarantee that hudud will not be implemented in Sabah, Kitingan said.
The “second time-bomb”, he said, was planted “decades ago with the issuance of dubious ICs and MyKads to foreigners, especially from southern Philippines”.
“This time-bomb is confirmed by the recent Esscom statements and actions.
“It is now deadly and going to explode at any time aided by corruption and lack of integrity of civil servants and security personnel,” said Kitingan.
He said with the Malaysia-sponsored Bangsamoro Peace Framework in Mindanao, southern Philippines, “there is no stopping Malaysians of Filipino descent agreeing in the longer term to team up and take Sabah out to form part of the Bangsamoro homeland”.
He described the third time bomb as Putrajaya’s issuance of citizenships to Indonesians, especially the Bugis, to counter the numbers of Filipino descent population.
“With the growing regional nationalism, there is no guarantee that the Bugis, both imported into Sabah and in Indonesia, will not carve out part of Sabah to join up with their brethren in Sulawesi.
“This can be seen by our own prime minister, who despite being generations as Malaysians had openly acknowledged his Bugis warrior bloodline,”
Kitingan said the favouritism shown by Putrajaya for Indonesians over the Filipinos made the latter uneasy.
“How will things turn out in Sabah and Malaysia is as good as anyone’s guess,” he said.
With Sabah being the golden goose to Putrajaya given the huge reserve in oil and gas, the state, he added, is a prize worth fighting for. – July 1, 2015.
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