Star Sabah chief Jeffrey Kitingan is blaming the government for the rampant drug smuggling and criminal activities that have spread throughout archipelago as a result of border crossings between Sabah and Indonesian Kalimantan not being monitored.

“What is the reason for the federal government to pour money and personnel into Esscom and establish the Esszone when they leave border posts with Indonesia unmanned?” asked Jeffrey when commenting on a news report quoting the governor of Kalimantan Utara in Indonesia

Jeffrey ( left ), who is Bingkor asemblyperson, said the governor had disclosed that Malaysia has breached her agreement with Indonesia in failing to man border crossings that separate Sabah from Kalimantan. 

 

He said if the governor’s revelation was true, he wondered if the Sabah government would continue to sit idlly by or take some action to protect Sabah's security from being compromised.

 

“Now, there is rampant drug smuggling and criminal activities due to the Malaysian government’s failure to man the border crossings since agreeing 15 years ago to do so,” he said in a statement.

 

Since Sabah’s land and sea borders with Indonesia stretches from Tawau to the Sarawakian border, a distance of several hundred kilometres with unmanned land borders, one can easily walk across the border into Sabah, he added.

 

“Is it now the motive of the federal government to flood Sabah with Indonesians now that they have a problem with the Filipino Sulu people who were the flavour of Project IC in the 1990s? asked Kitingan.

 

“I leave that question to be answered by Sabahans themselves,” he said.

'Putting fear into Sabahans'

 

Asking that Sabah Umno and BN leaders wake up to reality, he said that sooner or later foreigners with fake ICs would overrun Sabah. 

Sabah natives including the Kadazandusun, Bajau, Suluk, Iranun, Sungei, Ubian, Kedayan, Bruneian, Bisaya and others were already outnumbered in many areas, he said.

 

“The federal government can no longer be trusted to provide the security that was promised to Sabah to then persuade Sabahans to agree to the formation of Malaysia.   

 

“It was said that Sabah will contribute 60 percent of its revenue in return for security to be provided by the federal government. As it is now, the federal government takes 100 percent of Sabah’s revenues and 95 percent of its oil revenues, yet there is no real security provided,” he pointed out.

 

Instead, the federal government had caused the insecurity problem in Sabah with the unlawful issuance of ICs to unqualified foreigners and the illegal transfer of population from the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan and India. This in additiion to military and monetary support for foreign Muslim insurgents and now, the failure to man border posts, said Jeffrey.

 

He alleged that BN was trying to put fear into the hearts and minds of Sabahans to create the impression that only the BN government could provide security for Sabahans.  

 

“In this way, they hope Sabahans will continue to vote for BN and keep them in power through this treasonous act of compromising Sabah’s security,” said Jeffrey.