by Zan Azlee
I’m in full support of Malaysia’s security forces who are defending our sovereignty and protecting our people in Sabah from armed criminals.
Sabah and its people have collectively decided and claimed self-determination to be a part of Malaysia and its people to be Malaysians. This is not an issue anymore.
The issue that I would like to highlight this time is the slowness of the operations that is going on on the ground.
It has been about a month now since the armed criminals made their way into Sabah from the Philippines via the sea.
About 200 of them came over and parked themselves in Lahad Datu. I wonder how difficult is it for our security forces to clear out 200 people from a village?
At the time of my writing of this article, the news has reported that 56 armed criminals have been either caught or killed. That would mean that fewer than 150 are left.
It’s been over a month. The government’s Ops Daulat has deployed seven battalions to flush out the armed criminals.
One battalion can consist anywhere between several hundred to a thousand troops or individuals. So you can imagine seven battalions.
Our leaders need to step it up. The operation is taking too long and is putting our security forces at a larger risk because of this.
Malaysians are also feeling anxious, nervous and insecure. That is not something Malaysians are used to. The government needs to reassure the people.
It really doesn’t help if you think that even the defence and home ministers were only seen at ground zero two weeks after the first day of the incident.
And what about the prime minister? He was only seen in Sabah last week trying to boost the morale of our security forces.
To make things worse, the armed criminals have now spread themselves out throughout the east coast of Sabah.
It also doesn’t help that their genetic stock and our genetic stock is similar. And now there is concern that locals (whether Malaysians or not) are sympathising with them
I do admit that progress is being made. However, the progress is quite slow. We need to think of our safety and, like it or not, our country’s reputation.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not criticising our security forces’ efforts in fighting the armed criminals. I respect and am thankful for their sacrifice and heroism.
I am only playing the role of a responsible journalist and media man by being the check and balance that the people, and even the government, need.
Politics aside, I want Malaysia’s sovereignty to be protected and I want Malaysians (including myself) to feel safe. But, more importantly, to actually be safe.
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* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist and this article first appeared in The Malaysian Insider
