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The Abu Sayyaf Kidnap and Malaysia's submarine base in Sabah

The Malaysian cabinet, we are told, orders the armed forces to patrol the seas off the coast of Sabah, deploy troops in all resort islands, and have the Abu Sayyaf rebels shiver in their pants should it kidnap Malaysians ever again. Why did the defence minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak, take a national security operational matter to the cabinet? Should not the armed forces be deployed not because the cabinet wants it to, but to safeguard the territorial integrity of the country? Does it require cabinet approval to do that? Why was not the cabinet -- if indeed it is this price-fixing body which should approve armed forces' movements -- then depoloyed in April when the larger crisis broke out? And would the cabinet tell us whether Sipadan Island, which with neighbouring Litigan, has resorts operated by the Prime Ministerial son? And if they are Malaysia's, why did Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta refer their contending claims to ownership of these two islands to the International Court of Justice at the Hague?

The defence minister now says the three Malaysians kidnapped from Pandanan resort in Semporna Island in Sabah is to be left to the mercy of whoever kidnapped them and the Philippines Air Force bombing on suspected rebel positions in Jolo Island, where they are believed to be. He now says it is Manila's internal matter and Malaysia would not matter. This suggests that Malaysia did interfere when the foreigners were among the hostages from Sipadan Island. So, what is what? What is Malaysia's position about the kidnap? What diplomatic measures has it taken to rescue the three hostages? Or is he telling us that the previous lot of Malaysians kidnapped were rescued, with at least US$1 million paid for each release, because foreign tourists were kidnapped with them?

Or is this yet another sandiwara in which security concerns in the Sabah seas are highlighted to force through Malaysia's plan for a submarine base at Sepanga Bay in Sabah? What the Malaysian armed forces need is not more weaponry or technical toys, like fighter aircraft and submarines, but more professionalism and better training. Turning the soldiers into actors, and allowing actors to hoodwink the soldiers, as in the Grik arms heist, does not make for a professional army others would not dare to tread on. When Malaysia decided five years to buy a submarine, it led to an arms race. Singapore bought a submarine, from Sweden, which it has commissioned, with another due to join the fleet soon. Before the first arrived, two crews were in Sweden for training, and further crews would be sent for the next.

The island republic pointed to Malaysia's purchases to justify its submarine purchases. Malaysia, as usual, went into submarine buying without thought or relevance, and the need for submarines affirmed not for its operational needs, but because this expensive bauble would spread the largesse around and make regional navies frightened of Malaysian fire power. For some strange reason, Malaysian armed forces operational policies assume that when its soldiers, airmen and sailors take to battle they would be as professional as the Al-Maunah lot were when they spread fear into the bowels of its professionalism.

So, the question arises if the kidnappings off the coast of Sabah in April and this month has yet another agenda: the return to national attention to the Sepanga Bay submarine base. The unusual interest the Malaysian government made in that kidnap, the widespread belief in Sabah that there was more than meets the eye over that kidnap, and the presence of the deputy minister of education, Dato' Aziz Shamsuddin, and the the former chief minister of Sabah, Tan Sri Yong Teck Lee, with sundry others, who insisted on interfering in the negotiations as Dato' Seri Najib now says Malaysia would not, all points to differing groups with a vested interest in either or both kidnappings. We do not have the soldiers or the sailors to guard the isolated islands in an area infested with pirates. The seas off Sabah is not the Straits of Malacca. But the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is certain security forces guarding Sabah's east coast would "deal" with rebels fleeing the fighting. There is no way it could, not even if all of Malaysia's men in uniform, policy and armed forces, are sent there to deal with it.

Is this sudden interest then in the armed forces' well-touted but unproven capability an orchestrated smokescreen to tell the Malaysian public that the armed forces cannot operate effectively without a submarine base in Sabah and those involved in its purchase get commissions that would come in handy for their next holiday in Ougadougou. How much does this base cost? Figures of up to RM2,000 million is bandied about, the technical specifications changed to ensure the most modern equipment is installed, and the figures keeping changing as more irrelevant instrumentation is added. Which is why the cabinet rises from its stupor to order the armed forces to prove its ineffectiveness off the coast of Sabah.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my