Kota Kinabalu: The Democratic Action Party (DAP) wants a full investigation into alleged public involvement in kidnap-for-ransom activities. "It was worryingly reported that kidnappings had repeatedly taken place in the east coast waters of Sabah," said DAP Sabah Chairman Stephen Wong in a statement, Wednesday. Wong said it shows the Government failed to prevent these intrusive activities despite a huge budget allocated to the Eastern Sabah Security Command over the years.
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"Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun has been quoted as saying that these kidnap-for-ransom activities involved so many people including local villagers and weapon dealers who look for exorbitant profit over the kidnapping activities."It is going to be an 'industry' if it continues to happen? The Government must implement a larger-scale investigation and enforcement which includes local villagers and illegal immigrants," said Wong, who is Sandakan MP.
"As a Member of Parliament, I have repeatedly spoken about local public involvement in this kidnapping activities in previous Parliament sittings and especially on the involvement of illegal immigrants. "It was proven in multiple reports and sources that illegal immigrants are involved in many kidnapping activities and we have to deal with it immediately.
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"We are talking about internal factor. It means that even though we have increased so much allocation to upgrade our facilities and military assets at the border, it still fails when locals 'cooperate' with these terrorists," he said. He said other than that, local factors might also include corruption issues.
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"According to earlier reports by media in the Philippines, RM12 million in ransom was supposedly paid by hostages' families from Sibu to the Malaysian police, but at the end of the day, Abu Sayyaf claimed that they only received RM9 million."It might involve corruption when the remaining RM3 million ransom money was reported missing. "In order to resolve these internal problems once and for all, the Government must start to resolve the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah.
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"I am not impressed that government had repeatedly delayed to announce its action plan to resolve the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah despite reports from the Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in Sabah being released two years ago."It shows the Government lacks sincerity in resolving the problem," he said.