Category Archives: Law

GE13: Manifestos, Fantasies & Imaginations

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(Santa Claus of a different nature – he seems to be promising a lot of things to many sector of the community but does that promise comes with a catch? Where the millions of ringgit is coming from and from who’s pockets?)

Malaysians will go to the polls on May 5 and it does not matter whether you will vote for BN or PR. What is important is that on May 5, you wake up on time and go to the polling station and vote someone. Remember it is your duty as the citizen of this country and it only comes once in 5 years.

Election Santa Claus

As we move closer to this date, the level of insanity seems to be increasing as well – more sex videos exposures (which seems to be more important than corruption by millions of ringgit for some morons) and Najib continuing his Santa giveaways – plucking millions from thin air and promising to deliver them only if people are “grateful” when it comes to casting their votes.

Some even get some last minute “miracle” granted by BN politicians:-

After 20 years of struggle, prayers were finally answered when an 85-year-old Chinese temple in Minyak Beku was granted ownership for the piece of land it sits on. The land title for the 0.696ha plot, including a 280m access road to Persatuan Penganut-Penganut Agama Buddha Ching Boo Tian in Jalan Segenting here, was approved by the Johor Government recently. “We could not have done it without MCA and the Mentri Besar,” he said at the thanksgiving dinner organised by the temple, which was attended by more than a thousand people here on Sunday.

(Source)

Should temple be “grateful” (Najib’s buzz word of the day) for the recent approval of ownership or more rightfully be angry that it took the Government over 20 bloody years to approve the ownership and it only happened because of the upcoming general elections and not for other matters?

And speaking about being grateful, did you read about Hindraf’s 180’ degree turn on their relationship with BN? P Waythamoorthy now insists that the community’s welfare will only be cared for by the ruling coalition BN and not Pakatan Rakyat. This is same man who just before 2008 blamed UMNO and BN led Government for the dire state of the Indian community and caused many to take to the streets to protest. This is the same man when things got more tricky (when the rest of the key leaders were caught under ISA), fled to overseas. Now he turns around and says only BN can take care of the community? That’s interesting. I surely hope that he has forgotten the fact that Najib have been longing for the lost Indian votes and will be willing to promise the sky as long he gets the crucial votes in the coming election – nothing more, nothing less. After all, if BN had been serious in dealing with the community’s issues, it would have acted on it a long time ago – after the Hindraf rally and not at the eve of a general election. Why it have come to a point where Hindraf have to come out with a blueprint for the community and asks both BN & PR for endorsement? As the famed comedian Goundami would say – “arasiyalila ithellam saatharanam pa” (it is all normal in politics), uh Waytha?

And looking at the bigger picture, doesn’t the very promise of goodies in return for votes contravene the law?

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) today chided the federal and state governments for enticing voters with cash handouts and other freebies in what the corruption watchdog said is a blatant breach of electoral laws. The local branch of Transparency International also criticised the election regulator and Malaysia’s graftbusters for failing to clamp down on politicians in Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) who have been giving cash and vouchers and promising perpetual aid such as bonuses, cheap homes and free water with their eye on the bottomline in the May 5 polls. “Caretaker governments and candidates are breaking the Election Offences Act 1954 Section 10 which states all these gifts, loans, offers, promises, pronouncements are to procure votes,” Josie Fernandez, TI-M secretary-general, said in a statement.

(Source)

Is someone sleeping on the job then? Or it is just business as usual in the Bolehland?

The Invisible Bogeyman

But in the midst of intensive campaigning, vote buying election promises and stiff fight for seats, it was not a surprise that we have this kind stupidity cropping up:-

A Lim Kit Siang win in Gelang Patah will result in racial confrontation, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today, arguing that Chinese-Malay economic partnership will be ruined. With weeks left to Election 2013, the former prime minister continued his doomsday prediction by hammering on the opposition leader with his warning that Lim’s victory in the southern state would trigger racial clashes that would replace the existing cooperation between the Malay majority and Chinese community. “Kit Siang is going to bring about conflict and antagonism between the races, to wage the Chinese to dislike and hate the Malays,” Dr Mahathir wrote in his chedet.cc blog.

(Source)

As usual, Dr M is not far from talking nonsense and jumping on his dumb cheap antics of blaming the invisible Chinese bogeyman and culture of fear. When we will ever come to a stage that a vote for Chinese Malaysian (or a Malay or a Indian for argument sake) at end of the day is a vote for a Malaysian? Hasn’t the ghost of May 13 and culture of fear put to rest a long time ago? Why there will be racial confrontation when Lim Kit Siang is just one man and it is not like he has not run for Parliament and won many times before?

So, why need an invisible bogeyman to burn down the country when you can have the same with this kind of politicians going around promoting culture of fear and disunity? Najib has only kept mum on this which will not reflect well on his overused slogan “1Malaysia”. One thing is for sure – we will never achieve a developed nation status by 2020 – not when we still have this kind of people asking us to distrust fellow Malaysians. We must reject anyone who are willing to do anything just to win the elections and to remain in powers (even it means causing racial confrontations when there is none in the first). Dr M should look back into his dictionary and understand what the word retirement really means.

Election Manifesto

And of course, you have political manifestos flying around with some claiming each other as unachievable. Fine, manifestos may not be contract cast in stone and to some, it is nothing but a convenient way to let the voters to know on what the party intends to do – ideal intentions that may change over time due to political pressures, financial constraints and of course, dirty politics. So, it was not a big surprise when Najib claims BN’s recently launched manifesto as a serious matter but turns around and say that Pakatan’s manifesto as a mere fantasy and imagination:-

Najib said as the manifesto or pledge was an important document, it must be launched at a gathering and broadcast live so that the people throughout the country could appreciate the content of the manifesto. “They can study what is the commitment of the BN to the people,” he said. “Let the opposition say that the manifesto is not a pledge, if it’s not a pledge, why present a new manifesto, what’s the point of presenting a new manifesto. “To the BN, the manifesto is a serious matter,” he said. On the other hand, Najib criticised the opposition and described their manifesto as a ‘fantasy and imagination’ by making all kinds of promises as they liked.

(Source)

Before we precede even further, bear in mind that manifestos – whether it is from BN or Pakatan, is nothing but a mere intention of the various political parties on what they may do if they are voted into power. It is not formal contracts that one can sue when it is not carried out – otherwise BN would have been riddled with lawsuits for all these years they have been power. Strip away the icing, sugar-laced thumbs up and “wow” statements (especially from pro-BNs sites & BN politicians) in the media and re-read BN’s manifesto in a bigger picture and you may find BN’s manifesto itself suffering from the same problem of mere fantasy and imagination.

Let’s take some for analysis:-

  • Increasing BR1M up to RM1,200 for households and RM600 for singles while maintaining it on an annual basis

(BR1M – is it a sincere safety net for the poor or a sweetener for the people to vote for BN? You tell me. The main contention of BR1M is a. where does all the money is coming from? The final damage is not small – the first BR1M cost the taxpayers about RM1.92 billion, while BR1M2.0 cost around RM3 billion and now Najib is talking about an annual BR1M of RM1,200 per person which will cost the taxpayers almost RM5 billion annually. and b. it is clear that RM500 is not much for a family to use in the long run. So what is the long term solution for the lower income citizens? Simply throwing money without any long term plan is wasteful and is bad governance.)

  • Expanding the Rapid Bus System to every state capital, complete with facilities for the aged and disabled

(Well BN has been at this problem for x amount of years now, laying down the same old solutions for same old problems but nothing has been so simple and nothing has been so straight forward. Deployment of RAPID buses is nothing new but will the control of the route and some part of management be allowed to be delegated to the individual state governments for greater efficiency? Will there be a decentralization of the public transport management in the country which also includes the grant of license and permits?)

  • Solving the treated water supply problem in Selangor, the Federal Territory and Kelantan. Extending the supply of clean water to another 320,000 homes throughout the country

(Then there is always of dangling the issue of water and electricity – the basic needs of any voters and is an issue where one could not afford to take it so lightly. But the question that needs to be answered is this – do we really have an issue to contend with or it is an issue played out for political reasons? What about investing on alternate source for electricity and backup plans for potential blackout?)

And lastly, probably the dumbest of all (worth to be classified as the mother of all fantasy & imagination)…

  • Empowering MACC through the establishment of a Service Commission whereby the power of recruitment and service matters will lie entirely with the commission. Giving equal emphasis on investigations into, and action against, bribe givers and receivers

(Why the “wayang kulit” on MACC? After Taib’s show of the middle finger to MACC and no action whatsoever on the highly corrupt even after Global Witness’s video revelation, it would have been more proper and acceptable if Najib had instead proposed to shut down MACC permanently. MACC simply lacks the independence and prosecution powers to be effective against corruption. And to maintain MACC toothless is simply means an endorsement on the corruption and abuse of powers. If Najib wants to salvage his past promise of fighting corruption in this country should instead granted MACC wider powers which includes prosecution powers)

Winnable Candidates

It’s too bad that Samy Vellu was not named as a candidate for up-coming election despite naming himself as a winnable candidate (something that theSun columnist labelled as a Bollywood comedy) – it would have been interesting to see what would have been the outcome – whether MIC have indeed regained Indians’ support to the party. And speaking about winnable candidates, as you may be aware, Najib have dropped some from the list – the one we are happy to see to go would be Shahrizat Jalil and Ng Yen Yen but I won’t be so cheerful if I were you. Najib still carrying a substantial baggage of candidate with tainted history and as we have seen in the past, there is a good chance of those dropped from the list coming into the limelight through the “back-door”.

And one that Najib promoted for this election is Zulkifli Noordin who will be running for Shah Alam. Yes the same fellow who insulted the fellow Malaysians who are Hindus. The same fellow who stormed the Bar Council inter religion discussion back in 2008. Is Najib truly serious about getting the Indians to vote for BN? If he can’t get a better character than Zulkifli Noordin for his winnable candidate list, then that says a lot of the quality of people running loose in BN. If this is the best he can do to show that BN have changed, it is clear that it does not deserves our votes. At end of the day, nothing but a complete change of the government is what this country needs to stop the high wastage, blatant corruption and more importantly to promote a greater unity and fair-play in this country. Make your vote count for the right reasons.

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GE13: Quote of the Day 2

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(Well it was a big surprise to know that MACC had actually been “fingering” Taib on the allegations of corruption, at least not in the open and at least to a point where Taib is forced to make arrogant statement in the media but it was an even bigger surprise if the Government & MACC comes hard on Taib after this – after all, we have not see any “big fish” spending his / her last days in prison. Image source: http://fz.com)

When one is talking about “winnable candidates” and coming down clean for the voters to make the right decision, one cannot be far from dealing with the issue of corruption as well.

With the rather damaging revelations of broad-daylight corruption in Sarawak (now dubbed as the Shadow State) by the Global Witness and the growing call for MACC to make its investigations based on this revelation, we have this:-

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud said that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) does not deserve his cooperation in regard to the exposé made by Global Witness.

“They [MACC] don’t deserve my cooperation because they have been naughty and dishonest with me. “Let them investigate if they want to victimise me,” Taib said after attending the Barisan Nasional presidential council meeting at the PWTC here today. Last month, foreign-based NGO Global Witness made a shocking exposé on the alleged corrupt practices involving those linked to Taib pertaining to the sale of native customary land in Sarawak.

Asked whether the video had tarnished his image in Sarawak, Taib replied in the negative, saying that the exposé was not in tune with what Sarawakians wanted.

(Source)

Is he really above the law as many have claimed it to be?

Can Taib afford not to cooperate with MACC at a time when Najib desperately need to show that BN are far from the taint of any corruption? Does he has a choice in the first place? Does this means enforcement agencies like MACC is under the thumb and rule of such arrogant politicians? If the expose of corruption, tax evasion and gross abuse of government assets is not what the “Sarawakians wanted”, what else is then? That few can continue to enrich themselves with tax-payers money and native land whilst leaving the rest to remain under the poverty line but when investigations starts, turn around and claim that they have been victimised?

If Najib and MACC do not come hard (without the end result of Teoh Beng Hock of course) on this kind arrogance by politicians with shady background, then it is clear that a change of Government is grossly needed. Despite the past misgiving of MACC that resulted in people turning up dead and the lack of bite to go after the big fish in corruption, unfortunately it is still the only corruption agency in the country that was entrusted of fighting corruption on all levels.

So with Taib telling MACC off, does this means we have closed MACC down? Some seems to think so:-

What is the MACC to do now? All eyes are on the MACC, again.

After all, two people have died in the course of their investigations since they were set up in 2009. Will it back down and keep quiet after this brazen response from Taib? Won’t this kind of snub embolden others to thumb their nose at the MACC and refuse to cooperate too?

If the MACC doesn’t do anything about this response from Taib, it might as well close shop. It is already working on a trust deficit basis and this snub from Taib has just shown how powerless the commission can be when it comes head-to-head with the powerful.

(Source)

Just because Taib had won the state seats for Najib, does it means Najib had to hold back any action on wrongdoings (some even borders high treason) in sheer gratitude? Otherwise corruption and mismanagement of funds will continue without any prosecutions and the nation bled to death and the same politicians will claim that they have done the best for the nation. Remember and vote wisely when the time comes even if you are not in Malaysia’s shadow state.

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Inside Malaysia’s Shadow State

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It is not hearsay; it is direct from the horse’s mouth. It is hard evidence of corruption and breach of trusts, tax-evasion by the millions, illegal land grab and the downright shaming of the ordinary citizen deep in the jungles of Sarawak. The video is not hazy – it is crystal clear.

Sarawak Report writes:-

There can have been few more devastating secret filming exposes than the confessions made by Taib’s closest family, a close lawyer and his cronies as they set about trying to sell the land handed to them by the Chief Minister in his capacity as the man who controls the Land and Survey Department and indeed the whole of Sarawak.

The territory they are selling off is described at ‘state land’, but in fact as Global Witness has established both the Hiis and the daughters of Tun Ya’kub have got hold of titles to Native Customary Rights (NCR) Lands, where indigenous people were granted rights many years ago and now face being driven from their homes.

They all make clear that it is Taib who makes all the decisions to give out the NCR lands.

They also make clear that he gave it to them because they are close cronies and that in return the greedy dictator expects a large slice of the profits.

Not only that, the entire gang of thieves conspire together to cheat the country of tax in the process. These are the tax rules made by the very government that Taib is part of and which he enforces against everyone else!

The question is what Najib, the AG and the MACC intends to do about this?

You cannot get a better admission of wrong-doing, corruption and tax-evasion than this?

This is a film that will have Malaysia talking. But, Malaysia will see that BN and Najib Razak will do nothing to move against this corrupted state leader, because they think that Taib can deliver them a ‘fixed deposit” of votes in the coming General Election. Is it time to prove them wrong?

Yes, can Najib prove us wrong? Will these wrong-doers be allowed a similar “23 days grace” before any action is taken?

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Redefining Enemy of the State

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(Still remember this ‘enemy of the state’ from Australia. Thanks to the armed intruders in Lahad Datu, Malaysian Government is made a laughing stock when they immediately arrested and deported this ‘enemy of the state’ at the entry point but missed the 200 odd intruders from Sulu and gave 23 days of grace for these intruders to claim a part of Malaysia)

Read these first:-

PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang has been charged with sedition in a Sessions Court here for making statements linking the Government to the Lahad Datu shootings.

He was charged with making the statements claiming the shootings in Lahad Datu was a planned conspiracy by Umno to divert attention and frighten the people. He also said it was a “drama” by the Government to scare the people and divert their attention in Sabah, particularly away from the RCI into the state’s immigrants issue.

Tian Chua said from the dock: “This is a political allegation. I will answer this defamation to clear my name”.

(Source)

And

In the last stretch before GE13, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dropped all pretense for a Bangsa Malaysia and has gone for the Malay vote and slammed the Opposition for listening and accommodating the views and needs of the non-Malays.

State news agency Bernama quoted the country’s longest-serving prime minister as saying that Selangor must be saved from the opposition to ensure the rights and position of the Malays and Bumiputras are maintained in the state.

Dr Mahathir said the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had taken over Selangor’s economy and now had great ambition to control politics in the state.

(Source)

And

Police have busted a Nigerian drug trafficking syndicate, using women’s shoes, to ship drugs. The ‘unique’ modus operandi is the first of its kind, catering to customers overseas but the packing of the drugs is done in Gombak, said Selangor Narcotics chief Asst Comm Nordin Kadir on Thursday.

Three Nigerian men, who are students of private colleges were detained on Tuesday, along with the seizure of more than RM380,000 worth of heroin. The syndicate has been active for six months, gaining entry to the country using student passes.

(Source)

The intrusion in Sabah in one way or another have forced us to relook into how we enforce the security of our national borders and how things have been taken for granted when it comes to foreigners in the country. It is a good thing. We cannot to keep things at status quo if we do not want another armed intrusion at our borders and our security forces suffering unnecessary causalities.

In that sense, let’s look at Tian Chua’s case. He questioned the Government’s inaction against the armed intruders and may have said 1-2 things more about this but it did not take long for a number of police reports to be made against him – some claiming that he belittled the integrity of the armed forces dealing with the intrusion in Sabah. But then again, did he intend to do so? In the initial massive confusion of the whole intrusion, I believe Tian Chua was not alone in questioning the passive action by the Government in dealing with the armed intruder for 23 days before the first shot was fired.

So much so, Mariam Mokhtar writes:-

The rakyat has every right to question our leaders for spending billions of ringgit on armaments, which appear to be overpriced and ineffective. We certainly must question our leaders when it appears that the purchase price includes a heavy commission. A sum of RM1 billion was allegedly paid to the Defence Minister who purchased the Scorpene submarines.

We have a right to criticise our leaders for neglecting the Suluk threat and waiting 23 days before taking action. We condemn our leaders for depriving us of news when family and friends live and work in the area. We condemn Najib’s tactic of locking up opposition politicians who ask questions on our behalf. When we criticise the failure of our leaders to handle the Suluk threat, we are not questioning the bravery of the security forces. A prime minister who resorts to silencing the rakyat with lies and obfuscation, does not deserve our vote.

(Source)

Can you imagine if armed men had rushed into the Petronas Twin Towers, held no hostages and claim that the building belongs to them? Would they be allowed 23 days to evacuate the building? At the most, they would have given a couple of hours before they would have been flushed out one way or another by the police commandos. Same case in Lahad Datu and given the sensitivity of the place, a longer extension of 1-2 days may have been given but certainly not up to 23 days and after final deadlines went unheeded. If you want to find faults with politicians like Tian Chua, he probably is guilty in picking the wrong choice of words and the wrong expression in addressing this concern but certainly not guilty of questioning the integrity of our armed forces. However since he has been charged in the courts, let’s wait for the trial for the final outcome.

And then we have aged politicians like Dr M who claim that a rule under the oppositions means eradication of the rights and privileges of the Malays. Apparently the state of Selangor is in “great danger” due to the accessions to the Non-Malays and must be saved at all cost. This is despite the fact that both the Malays and Non-Malays are Malaysians at the end of the day and the rights and privileges of the Malays are entrenched in the constitution. At this point, one need to wonder what this is so different with the Sulu bandits in Sabah threatening the security of the country? Why there are no barrage of police reports made then? After all, such irresponsible statements (despite coming from a retired old man) are grossly untrue and can cause unnecessary animosity between the various races in the country. Doesn’t a threat to national unity is a threat to the national security? Doesn’t this borders the same Sedition Act that Tian Chua is facing now?

We can understand and tolerate to an extent, the dirty politics and personal attacks on certain individuals or political parties – we had already expected it, from the various instances of Pakatan claiming that BN is corrupt and wasteful with tax-payers money and BN claiming undesirable needs of an Opposition Leader and some opposition politics corrupt as well. If there is proof, we highly welcome it – it will allow us to make an informed decision on who to vote for in the coming general elections. But causing hatred on the basis of Malays are loosing out to the Non-Malays just because BN is not ruling the State should not be tolerated and entertained at all. It should not be allowed to continue as well. Dr M may have done things in the past that gained some respect from Malaysians but at this point of time, he is nowhere at that level. Not when he continues to make statements that only causes disunity between Malaysians.

And whilst we seem to have defined the threat to national security in the wrong way in the past, we seem to be heading at the right direction by looking at the existence of 800,000 Filipinos in Sabah and re-looking at the tightening of the border security. It is a good start but we still have foreigners in this country and some of them determined to be a menace and threatens the good name and the security of the country. We still have Nigerians “students” caught for drug related crimes on a regular basis when we have seen and experienced the same in the past. So why we are still allowing student visas for these Nigerians and how well we did the background check and verifications before we granted them access into this country? We have South Americans doing ATM robbery jobs (I don’t think they have been caught) and Iranians, Indians, Pakistanis and others caught for drug related crimes.

We have a sizeable number of foreigners in this country and we need them for the growth of the nation. We appreciate their hard work, investment and participation but at the same time, the Government should be very mindful on who comes in and out of the country. The Lahad Datu armed intrusion could just be a rare incident and we may not see any further escalation once the on-going clean-up by our security forces ends but then again, it also happened because we took things for granted and swept the issue of foreigners in Sabah under the carpet for far too long. Malaysia is a peaceful country but we should not sit on our laurels – we need to be mindful on who are the real enemy of the state.

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Malaysia’s New Approach to Foreign Armed Intrusion?

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(Still remember the PDRM’s courtesy in the previous Bersih rallies organised and in attendance by none other than fellow Malaysians? Why it is not the same strong treatment against unwanted armed foreigners who also wants a piece of the country? The real question to be asked perhaps is on which side does the police and the Government are when it comes to the situation in Lahad Datu. It is getting more suspicious by the day. Image source: Facebook)

A couple days ago, I was flying back – the MAS flight was not that full and the in-flight service from the award winning cabin crew was top notch as usual.

Just when we had passed Malaysian airspace and the plane started the descent, a short video on KLIA and Malaysia (hosted by the lovely Asha Gill) was shown on the overhead display and the foreigners around me seemed tantalized. One thing that Asha Gill said in the end and that brought tears to my eyes – she said she can go on and on Malaysia and there was a twinkle in her eyes when she said and I saw my fellow passengers had the same facial impression. I was feeling very proud indeed of my country and where it stands in the eyes of the world. For me, that is the truth and reality and I am sure it is the same for most of us.

But coming back to ‘tanah air‘, you will be confronted with unexplained insanity such as this:-

Police are still in negotiations with the 100-odd armed intruders, claiming to be from the Royal Sulu Army, who have been holding the authorities at bay in Kampung Tanduo, a coastal village 90km from Lahad Datu since Feb 12.

(Source)

Oh by the way, let’s not talk about the detention and the deportation of a certain Australian senator under the disguise of national threat which happened about the same time. That simply does not add up when one talks about national security. It is quite dumb if you ask me for the only overwhelming reason for this deportation seems to be the senator is pro-opposition and not because actual threat to national security (if you put this and the Lahad Datu intrusion side by side, what one lone unarmed elected lawmaker from a developed country could do?). In the end, it reflects rather badly on us (who claim that we have fair elections year in, year out) and with general elections coming up any time now, it appears to be nothing but dirty politics in play at the end.

But instead let’s look at the bigger boo-boo that is happening in Lahad Datu. Let’s take a step back and consider these things:-

  • These men are heavily armed
  • They are foreigners who insist that part of Sabah belongs to them and determined to get their wish done (even though how they going to do that is still a big mystery)
  • They had effectively ‘chased’ away Malaysians from their homes and basically turned them into refugees in their own country
  • Our armed forces are not weaklings and is a force to reckon with in this side of the continent and is ever ready to face any intrusion from in and out of the country (they have proven themselves many times over)
  • And yet the Government is still negotiating with these unwanted armed intruders and threat to national security with soft approach with plenty of deadlines that in the end went unheeded by the group.

Why?

Is it because they do not ‘upset’ other people from the same region in the past (probably ‘Malaysianised‘ under the project IC) and cause them to vote against the Government for the next elections? And all the sudden the number of votes had become more important than the sovereignty of the country? Or is it because the police have the inside information that the group had planted other intruders in other area in Sabah and will resort to mayhem if the security forces storm them with bloody consequences? That makes some sense but doesn’t giving longer time to this group only allows them to entrench even deeper?

TheSun reports:-

The Philippine Daily Inquirer also says Malaysia is in a no-win situation as a result of the standoff in Sabah. “If it uses deadly force on a small group of armed Filipino Muslims now holed up in the village … members of the fiercest of Philippine Moro tribe, the Tausogs of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, will retaliate. “If, on the other hand, Malaysia compromises with the armed group purportedly belonging to the Sultanate of Sulu, it will be perceived as a weakling by its neighbours.”

But that’s not all. A commentary by Ramon Tulfo in the same newspaper makes compelling reading because we are not talking about just the men and women who arrived by boat three weeks ago, but something more sinister. He says that even before the landing of 200 men in Lahad Datu, the Sulu sultanate had sent armed men in small groups to Sabah to escape notice from authorities. “The armed groups are being coddled by Tausogs in the Malaysian state,” he wrote.

Or is it because the government have screwed up things for these people (in the last peace deal) and feeling guilty (or rather worried the truth will be out) and buying time to sweep things under the carpet? Something seems not right indeed and the same echoed by the Pakatan politicians:-

The Barisan Nasional government could be using the Lahad Datu incident to divert people’s attention from the IC-for-votes Royal Commission of Inquiry proceedings and the Manuel Amalilio scandal, claimed PKR. PKR vice-president Tian Chua said that he found it bizarre that the Malaysian government was being lenient with the armed Filipinos now camped in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

“It’s been one week since they arrived. The BN government has a lot to explain,” Tian Chua said at press conference held at the party headquarters here today.

Tian Chua, who is also Batu MP, said that he found it irrational for the Sulu Sultanate to send armed men to intrude into Sabah just because of a historical claim. “I do recognise Sulu’s historical link to Sabah but to send 100 armed men to take over the state is not rational,” he said. Tian Chua also took a swipe at the immigration authorities for failing to stop the intruders from arriving at Lahad Datu.

“What are we negotiating? When they are leaving or something else? It all look very dramatic to me,” he said.

(Source)

And what kind message the government is sending out by continuing to negotiating with armed terrorist group? That any armed groups can waltz in and the armed forces of Malaysia will step by and will negotiate with them to leave peacefully? Didn’t they learned anything from the Americans in dealing with the terror groups?

What happens if one day, another armed factions from the neighbouring countries (mind you we still have a bloody conflict down south of Thailand) or worst likes of Al-Qaeda decide to do the same? What is the point of buying high-tech submarines, cream of Russian fighter interceptors and best of the military fire power when we are reduced to using roses and soft approach to armed men? Why we have not gotten some of our best snipers and take some of the ringleaders with a shot to the head (after giving one sole deadline of 24 hours of course) and move our commandos to sweep out the rest of the intruders from the country? After all, we already had these intruders cornered and we know where they all are.

And tactically, the delays by the armed forces in flushing out these intruders and sent them, back to whatever hole they crawl from may have dire consequences. Whilst it may have gained valuable time for the security forces to do their intelligence and reassess the correct tactics (do they need a small platoon or need to do carpet-bombing) to take down this group when the order finally comes, it had also allowed the group to dig in further defensively which may prolong bloodshed once the battle to flush out the intruders starts. A well defended area may take longer time to take down but it will be taken down eventually given our military might but at what cost?

The thing is when armed men storm into this country uninvited, chase away Malaysians from their homes and their way of life and continued to show their middle finger to the sovereignty of this country, the last thing we want the Government to do is to hold back the quick retaliation with the strongest measures possible and proceed instead continue to negotiate and imply that we are soft and weak and willing to do anything to avoid bloodshed on side of the armed intruders. So once again, question must be asked on whose side the Government and the police really are in this conflict? One hope that the Government will come to their senses and end this intrusion now and without further delays or further negotiations. We have given all the time to these intruders to make up their mind and they have made their stand very, very clear.

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