'Sabah needs high-tech satellite system to monitor its coastline'
Published on: Thursday, March 19, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: A high-tech satellite system should be in place for better surveillance and monitoring along the long coastline of Sabah.Universiti Utara Malaysia's (UUM) Ghazali Shafie School of Government Dean, Prof. Dr Mohd Kamarulnizam Abdullah, said the Federal Government needs to consider such facility which can be used as a long-term measure to provide better protection, particularly to the East Coast."I believe we should be ready to use a high-tech satellite system that effectively detects movements in the coastal waters, particularly in the East Coast.
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"Probably the cost of taking up this sophisticated system involves huge expenses at the initial stage, but I believe in the long run it could resolve the difficulties of carrying out surveillance on the long coastline and border in Sabah."This is because placing security forces in vessels at designated locations along the 1,600-kilometre long coastline to do security surveillance would not be practical as we do not have the facilities (security assets)," he said.Dr Mohd Kamarulnizam said this to reporters after presenting his paper entitled "Sabah Dalam Konteks Keselamatan Nasional Dan Serantau" in a seminar on Nation Building 2015: Sabah Developing in Malaysia at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), here, Wednesday.He said such high-tech equipment could be one of the proactive approaches that could be considered by the Federal Government as defence and security matters fall under its jurisdiction.
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"Adopting a proactive approach is the best way to protect the sovereignty and security in Sabah in addition to political will and commitment of the Federal and State governments to double their efforts to further improve the security aspects."The Government cannot afford to be reactive in looking for ways to enhance the security system like what happened during the Sulu militant intrusion into Tanduo, Lahad Datu.
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"They have to be more proactive in the sense of expecting new types of threats that could jeopardise our security and come up with measures to tackle those kinds of threats," he said.On the establishment of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom), Dr Mohd Kamarulnizam described the agency as the Government's short-term measure that could only be viable for one or two years.Hence, he hoped the Government would come up with a long-term mechanism beyond Esscom when there is no more intrusion into the East Coast."What needs to be looked at is beyond Esscom…which is relatively a short-term measure to address and tackle the security problems that we are facing now (at the East Coast), and to show how serious we are in safeguarding the borders."But in the long-term, Esscom is not a permanent measure…in fact, during its establishment, it was not even mentioned that the agency is a permanent one."Even the dawn-to-dusk curfew at the East Coast waters cannot be enforced forever. I am sure it is a short-term security measure…and thus it is imperative the concerned authority think what's next including the long-term ones," he said.Dr Mohd Kamarulnizam said he believed policymakers are in the midst of looking for long-term ways to enhance the security system, particularly in protecting Sabah's long coastline and its sovereignty.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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