RM2b spent but problem stays: DAP
Published on: Friday, July 03, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The government should consider investing in a hi-tech radar and satellite system if it is serious in tackling cross-border crimes that have been plaguing Sabah's east coast for decades.Sabah Democratic Action Party (DAP) Organising Secretary Junz Wong said simply buying hundreds of speedboats and adding more infrastructure for Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) are not effective as proven by continuous kidnapping incidents that happened right under the nose of Esscom personnel."Almost RM2 billion had been spent by the government and various reasons have been given why these criminals continue to breach our borders and abduct people. But the real problem remains - our inability to really control our waters effectively," he told a press conference, Thursday.
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The Automatic Identification System (AIS) for vessel tracking, he said, is one of several ways to identify the coming and going of vessels in Sabah's waters and would be more effective than putting the responsibility of minding the waters to security personnel."In the open sea, at night, you could not even see the palm of your hand if you stretch it out in front of you. How do you expect our security personnel to see any intruders in such condition?"But with a good radar system, we will immediately know that an unknown object is moving into our waters. If we have the AIS system in place, then we can determine whether the object is friend or foe by checking if it is registered in our system or not."This way, our security personnel can easily intercept the threat and stop crime from happening if indeed that suspicious object is a group of kidnappers, intent on carrying out cross-border crime," he said.
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The system, which would come up to RM35 million for every 5,000 boats, would fit each boat with its own transponder and would require boat owners to register with the government for identification.Not only will this help the government monitor the movement of these vessels but also it would help control the ownership of speedboats and even sampans from simply building and using them for malicious purposes.
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Meanwhile, Junz questioned the efficiency of Esscom structure on whether the different authorities within the organisation could coordinate and complement one another to effectively eliminate external threats."I think it's time for Esscom to explain to the people of Sabah why it has failed to tackle intruders from kidnapping our people or admit openly that the structure has its weaknesses, let us look into these weaknesses and find a solution," he said.Unfortunately for Esscom, he added, the organisation is run by distinct security bodies that will only take orders from their respective commanding officers as that had been the norm all this while."How do you expect military officers to take orders from police commanders and vice versa? They are distinct, they are different. No one can order these different units to act without their individual commanding officers."That's why we are always a step behind those intruders," he said.Junz proposed that Esscom forms two lines of defences, one manned by the navy where its scope is in the open waters while the other by marine police and the police where they will be monitoring activities near the shores as well as inland.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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