Where’s the logic, Hisham?

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Feb 21, 2013

If the current soft ‘handling’ of the incursions by armed Filipinos into Lahad Datu is any measure, then it is clear that Sabahans’ safety is inconsequential to the federal government.

Calvin Kabaron, Free Malaysia Today

It is an irony how promptly Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein ordered the arrest and deportation of Australian Senator Nick Xenophon while 100 armed Filipinos in military fatigue were being handled with kid gloves by the police and Special Branch officers because they had “links” in Sabah.

Xenophon arrived solo and unarmed but was considered a security threat. But in Lahad Datu, some 100 “soldiers” from the alleged Royal Sultanate of Sulu Army who were armed with “M-14, M-16, M203 and Armalite assault rifles” were considered friendly, “not militants” and “not a threat”.

These armed Filipino bandits landed in Sabah claiming ownership of the land on behalf of their Sulu Sultan.

In any other country, the Home or Internal Security Minister would have been at the site of the incursion the moment it was known.

But not Hishammuddin.

He saw it fit to arrive in Kota Kinabalu only yesterday, seven days after the police and the “militant army” – holed up in a oil palm plantation in Lahad Datu – faced a standoff after failing to come to an agreement over their demands.

When Hishammuddin held a press conference in Kota Kinabalu, flanked by military and police top men here, he had yet to visit the incursion site.

He just rolled off what he was told. Hishammuddin said everything was under control and that the federal forces would not compromise the security of Sabahans.

“The armed group are not militants or terrorists but since they had guns, it is important our action does not lead to bloodshed,” he said in defence of the militant Muslim group from the southern Philippines.

Hishammuddin also categorically denied speculations that the intrusion had anything to do with Manila’s claims, albeit indirectly, on Sabah, and fear of repatriation of Filipinos after the federal appointed Royal Commission of Inquiry’s (RCI) devastating witness testimonies.

In the January RCI sitting, witnesses revealed details of a high level agenda to neutralise Sabah’s Christian population by offering citizenship-for-votes to arriving Muslims from the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan and India. The ICs were issued by the National Registration Department (NRD) under instruction from top level federal Umno leaders.

“The issue is not political, not racial; [it has] no connection with the stand on sovereignty but in our context this is our land and this is something that can jeopardise the nation’s security,” Hishammuddin said.

The minister must think Sabahans and Malaysians are stupid.

‘Sabah is our home’

The Philippine media, meanwhile, has gone to town with the news that the Malaysian government may send back hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Filipino illegal immigrants, many of whom had in their possession dubiously-acquired Malaysian documents.

In Manila, the Sulu group leader SuItan Jamalul Kiram asserted that his followers – some 400 men – were resolute and would stand their ground in Lahad Datu for “however long it takes”.

“Nobody will be sent to the Philippines. Sabah is our home,” so proclaimed Jamalul, who is one of the many claimants to the elusive throne.

But unlike the other claimants, Jamalul’s position as Sultan of Sulu is recognised by Manila and President Benigno Aquino was reportedly “informed of the incursions since Day One”.

Jamalul had even proudly announced that if his army in Lahad Datu was armed, then the weapons did not come from the Philippines but were already available in Sabah.

In an interview with the Philippine media, Raja Azzimudie Kiram, the leader of the group and brother to Jamalul, said his men in Lahad Datu were equipped with “all kinds” of weapons including “M-14, M-16, M203 and Armalite assault rifles”.

This can only mean that the Sulu “army” could have been stocking arms in Sabah for quite sometime.

Now isn’t this a serious offence? In Malaysia being in possession – illegally – of a normal firearm is a fatal crime punishable by death; what more when we are talking about combat guns.

Remember the Al-Maunah group caught hauling modern guns some years back? Remember how the authorities quickly rounded them up and dealt the harshest possible blow.

The authorities said the Al-Maunah groups were waging a war against the Malaysian Yang di-Pertuan Agong and as such the offence was punishable by death.

‘Imbecile’ Hisham

So why is the federal government being tentative about this band of militants who wants to “seize” or “reclaim” Sabah?