Sabah abduction: What conspiracy?

Najib should blame his administration for the kidnapping in Sabah instead of “certain quarters” out to spoil Malaysia's ties with China.

COMMENT

Even as they were biting their nails trying to make sense of the MH370 crisis, Malaysians received another shock on Wednesday with news that armed men had abducted two foreign nationals from a holiday island in Sabah.

The two women, one from China and the other from the Philippines, were hauled out of a hotel in Pulau Singamata and bundled into a boat that sped off into the open sea.

Tourists are scared out of their wits, security forces are baffled, and Najib Tun Razak has ordered immediate action by enforcement agencies. That was indeed the prime ministerly thing to do and he should have stopped there.

Instead, he gave in to the temptation to connect the kidnapping to the MH370 crisis, saying it was possible that “some quarters” were trying to sour relations between Malaysia and China, which his administration has lately been trying to portray as sweet and cuddly.

What an untimely and silly thing to say. It came out like bullshit, considering how long Sabahans have been complaining about poor security in their state and attributing it to the uncontrolled influx of foreigners. They have been pleading for government action for more than 10 years.

Remember the Sulu incursion in Lahad Datu last year? It proved how easy it is for uninvited foreigners to barge into Sabah undetected.

Remember too how lightly the government initially treated the crisis, with Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein taking his own sweet time to deal with it. He even rebuked the public for calling the Sulus intruders, claiming they were merely “malnourished old men”.

Malnourished or not, they managed to kill several policemen and were preparing for war before the government decided to get its act together.

Even before the incursion, it had been evident for a long time that Sabah was full of illegal immigrants, mostly Filipinos and Indonesians.

It was only in 2012 that the government finally caved in to public pressure and appointed a royal commission to investigate the long standing allegation that a large number of those foreigners carried Malaysian identity cards acquired by dubious means.

But then, has anyone heard anything from the commission since the inquiry ended last September?

So, Najib, there is no conspiracy to sour ties between Malaysia and China. Wednesday’s kidnap, while appalling, was just one more evidence of the BN government’s lackadaisical attitude.

For many years, people have been warning that this sort of thing might happen, and the government has not taken any concrete action except to set up the Eastern Sabah Security Command (EssCom), which has proven to be a failure.

So, Najib, if you need someone to blame, take it up with your predecessors and yourself.