End to tourism if kidnapped Sabahans beheaded

Api Api Assemblywoman tells Putrajaya it would spell the end for the tourism industry in Sabah, if two hostages kidnapped in Sandakan four months ago are harmed in any way.

KUALA LUMPUR: Api Api Assemblywoman Christina Liew Chin Jin Hadhikusumo has warned Putrajaya that it would spell the end for the tourism industry in Sabah, its lifeblood, if hostages taken in Sandakan four months ago are beheaded as threatened by a kidnapping-for-ransom gang based in the southern Philippines.

“The Federal Government should view seriously the threat by the kidnappers to behead restaurant manager Thien Nyuk Fun and businessman Bernard Then Ted Fen,’ said Liew who is also PKR Sabah Deputy Chief. “Chan Wai See, Then’s wife, has already informed the Home Ministry that the kidnappers conveyed the beheading threat to her during a telephone conversation last Saturday evening.”

The Home Ministry, she lamented, was not taking the threat seriously. “Already, five days have passed since the kidnappers issued the latest threat.”

“It would be a sad day for tourism in Sabah if the two kidnap victims are beheaded because of inaction on the part of the Home Ministry.”

The Federal Government, she added, was supposed to provide for security for Sabah. “That’s the main reason why our founding fathers could be persuaded to enter into Federation in 1963 with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya.”

“However, we have seen no security for Sabah since 1963.”

She added that it has been four months since the duo was kidnapped despite the existence of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (EssCom) covering 10 districts in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (EssZone). “The government cannot afford to drag its feet on the kidnapping. The lives of the two victims are at stake. It’s a matter of great urgency.”

“Putrajaya should make every effort to expedite and secure the release of the kidnapped duo.”

Liew conceded that she could not tell the government how it could bring closure to the matter. “The government should know what to do given its experience with past kidnapping cases. So far, to the best of my knowledge, none of the people kidnapped from Sabah in previous cases were harmed. All were released safely.”

It’s learnt that Thien Nyuk Fun, 50, suffers from high blood pressure. Bernard Then Ted Fen, 39, a Sarawakian businessman who calls Sabah home, happened to be visiting Sandakan as a domestic tourist with his family when he was kidnapped in the Ocean King Seafood Restaurant where Thien was the manager. He had just come out of the washroom when the kidnappers, who apparently were looking for him in the restaurant, spotted him.

Earlier media reports quoted Sabah Police Commissioner Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman as saying that the kidnappers, a militant group in the southern Philippines, demanded RM30 million for the release of Thien and Then.

Newly-appointed Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed was reported as conceding in the media that “it’s not easy to track the kidnappers as they keep shifting, moving to a new location every few days. In this case, the authorities in the Philippines play a greater role because the kidnap victims, we believe, are within their jurisdiction.”