The 3 Time-bombs Under ESSCOM – Dr. Jeffrey

KOTA KINABALU - “The recent statements coming out from ESSCOM only confirms what Sabahans have been saying since the 1990s that the wanton issuance of dubious ICs to foreigners to keep Umno and BN in power in Sabah will only serve to create enemies within and subject Malaysia to a reverse takeover by foreigners in time to come," said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief, commenting on the Esscom statements that the enemies are within and will take time to overcome the security threats and that 200,000 illegals are waiting to be deported and that ESSCOM is roping in MACC to check the corruption and lack of integrity of civil servants and security personnel.

It has been 2 years since the establishment of ESSCOM and ESSZONE and the security threats in Sabah especially in the East Coast is not much better. The federal government seems to be unable to come up with long-term and lasting solutions to protect Sabah and by extension Malaysia.

The security threats are becoming greater if the steps taken by ESSCOM of putting in another battalion of security personnel, the continued cross-border kidnappings including that of a security personnel and thwarting of another 6 kidnappings and the recent statements by ESSCOM, are taken as indications.

The bigger picture and longer term prospects are bleaker with the 3 additional time-bombs created under ESSCOM. Knowingly, unknowingly or unwittingly, the federal government including Umno has created these 3 time-bombs in Sabah which are real threats to the nation.

Firstly, the export of Umno’s brand of race and religion and religious extremism and fanaticism is fanning Islamic militarism as seen from arrests of IS or ISIS militants including from Sabah. They not only threaten the peace and harmony of multi-ethnic and multi-religious Sabah.

They are fanning the IS or ISIS fanaticism and recent events in Malaya show, a growing “talibanization” or misconceived “arabization” as former Premier Tun Mahathir puts it.   Now, it may be a “sarong” dress code and objections to music concerts. In time to come, the dress code for women will not be “tudung” or veil but mandatory “burqa” and the banning of all non-Islamic music and barring of women to travel unaccompanied by another male relative.  In Saudi Arabia, women are even not allowed to drive.

And with Sabah having a Muslim majority and Umno with its 31 seats and another 17 from its BN components, giving BN a 2/3 majority in the State Assembly, and growing support from hard-line PAS, there is no guarantee that hudud will not be implemented in Sabah.

The second time-bomb was planted decades ago with the issuance of dubious ICs and MyKads to foreigners especially from Southern Philippines and this time-bomb is confirmed by the recent ESSCOM statements and actions. It is now deadly and going to explode at any time aided by corruption and lack of integrity of civil servants and security personnel. At least on the corruption side, ESSCOM has started a movement with MACC to improve integrity and check the corruption.

With the Malaysia-sponsored BangsaMoro Peace Framework in Mindanao, Southern Philippines, there is no stopping of Malaysians of Filipino descent agreeing in the longer term to team-up and take Sabah out to form part of the BangsaMoro homeland.

Having realized the potential horror of the second time-bomb, the federal government has unwittingly created a third time-bomb with the issuance of citizenships to Indonesians especially the Bugis to counter the numbers of Filipino descent population.

With the growing regional nationalism, there is no guarantee that the Bugis, both imported into Sabah and in Indonesia, will not carve out part of Sabah to join up with their brethren in Sulawesi. This can be seen by our own PM who despite being generations as Malaysians has openly acknowledged his Bugis warrior bloodline.

Meantime, the favouritism of Indonesians over the Filipinos are making the latter uneasy.
“How will things turn out in Sabah and Malaysia is as good as anyone’s guess?” said Dr. Jeffrey.

After all, Sabah is the golden goose even to the federal government. It certainly will be for any others given the huge fortune in Sabah’s oil and gas. A recent new oil-well is targeted to produce 135,000 barrels a day excluding natural gas. Imagine, the fortune that awaits as Petronas prepares to open up another 16 oil-fields in Sabah for production, making oil revenue to be RM300 billion easily even at current low prices. And that does not include the other discoveries in the East Coast and the open secret “find of the century” off Sabah waters and oil-fields located on-shore in Tawau and Lahad Datu.

In the meantime, the time-bombs are ticking away. It certainly looks like the time-bombs are greater threats to the security and break-up of Malaysia than SSKM which is more a political threat to Umno/BN remaining in power.