It is supposed to be a tourist paradise!

Sabah has now become a haven for abductors and each abduction is a tragedy, as well as a harm to Malaysia.

In April and May this year, a female tourist from Shanghai and a Chinese fish farm manager were abducted, further hitting the country's tourism industry which has been suffering losses from the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, while tarnishing the country's image and reputation.

Prior to this, a Taiwanese tourist was shot dead and his wife was abducted when a group of gunmen raided a resort in Semporna.

Unfortunately, similar tragedies are still being staged. The old hostages escaped, but new hostages are abducted. Not long after the female tourist was rescued, two men were abducted by Filipino gunmen from a fish farm near Kunak in the east coast of Sabah.

How could abductions keep occurring in Sabah and why are almost all abductors from the Philippines?

It can be viewed from two aspects. There are internal and external factors.

The external factor is referring to the location of Sabah which is adjacent to the southern Philippines, where the situation is most complex and armed rebel groups are most active. Abducting hostages to collect funds is the usual trick adopted by these groups. An organisation named Abu Sayyaf is responsible for most of the abductions in Sabah. They mainly ask for ransom but we cannot rule out the possibility that political purposes are also involved.

As for the internal factor, of course, it is referring to the severe vulnerabilities in the country's security system, particularly the lax coastal defence, which has allowed foreign armed men to come and go easily.

Ten days ago, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein admitted that the lack of human resources, corruption, information leakages, smuggling and other integrity-related factors have led to the failure of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) to stop abductions in Sabah.

Hishammuddin also revealed the problems faced by Esscom, including the lack of cooperation among relevant agencies; the failure to identify deployment locations and how to allocate personnel and equipment. The vulnerabilities have existed since the Lahad Datu intrusion and thus, the government must conduct a comprehensive review and upgrade Esscom.

Unfortunately, before actions are taken, another abduction was heard from Sabah. The repeated abductions have at least proven two points. Firstly, all involved agencies have not learned from the previous tragic events and made no improvement; secondly, gunmen from the Philippines have been ignoring our military and police. Since the security forces of our country have been helpless in stopping their "invasion", they become more and more blatant.

In the face of the increasingly blatant provocation from the Philippine gunmen, our security forces must not appear to be so weak and incompetent. Instead, their strength must be demonstrated and active actions must be taken to set a fatal blow to these gunmen, to protect the people and tourists, while defending the country's image and reputation.

Sabah is one of the most beautiful states of the country. Its offshore islands are so beautiful like a fairyland and the area regarded as another diving paradise in addition to Maldives. With such excellent conditions, Sabah is supposed to be the country's most attractive tourist paradise, instead of an abduction paradise that scares tourists away! – www.mysinchew.com