Complacency not an option

Manila’s political will against the Abu Sayyaf is a welcome relief

HELD hostage since the middle of last year in southern Philippines by the Abu Sayyaf militant group — more bandits than freedom fighters — five Malaysian sailors were recently rescued by that country’s security forces. They were abducted from their tugboat in the Sulu Sea while sailing from Sandakan to Semporna. That their time in captivity was nothing less than tortuous is testified to by the sorry state of the health of the first two rescued and returned Malaysians. The account given by one of them was harrowing, something not to be suffered by anyone nor tolerated by anybody, least of all, the authorities in both Malaysia and the Philippines.

In August last year, a few months into his presidency, President Rodrigo Duterte issued a “wipe out” order to his military against the Abu Sayyaf, using “full force”. Granted there have been critics — and supporters, too — of his modus operandi but that hostages are at last being rescued is a sign that his efforts are paying off. Imagine how many lives were lost needlessly in the past for want of greater political will to eliminate a bunch of pirates masquerading as freedom fighters. Malaysia has done much to assist in arriving at a negotiated settlement between Manila and the Muslim separatists of Mindanao, but the Abu Sayyaf were never a part of it. Instead, prior to the formation of the Eastern Sabah Security Command after the Lahad Datu incursion in 2013, these bandits preyed on Sabah’s tourists. Now, they infest the waters of the Sulu Sea, making it dangerous for ships plying the sea routes.

And, given that Abu Sayyaf’s victims have included Indonesian nationals and vessels, it is only to be expected that military cooperation between the three countries is being planned to secure the Sulu Sea for commercial shipping. Recently, the Malaysian defence minister announced that a meeting between the three defence ministers would take place next month to discuss maritime security in the Sulu Sea, which will cover Sabah waters. This will touch on “cooperation between the three nations, joint patrols, ‘eye in the sky’” and, too, other relevant issues.

A long time coming, the discussions between them must come to a successful conclusion or the long, exposed eastern coast of Sabah, some 1,400km long, can never be properly secured. That some amicable arrangement is arrived at between Manila and Putrajaya, especially, very much matters given the territorial dispute egged on by what is a defunct sultanate of Sulu. For, the Muslimmajority provinces of Mindanao are equipped with rebel armies that many years of negotiations have failed to disarm. Their mobilisation on any pretext then is not to be dismissed lightly, which has been why Malaysia has busied itself with being the honest broker between Manila and the Bangsamoro. And, Lahad Datu 2013 was a wake-up call. A nowhere-to-run-to policy then must be established in support of Duterte’s tough stance against the evil that is Abu Sayyaf. The gloves are off; keep them off.

Malaysia has done much to assist in arriving at a negotiated settlement between Manila and the Muslim separatists of Mindanao, but the Abu Sayyaf were never a part of it.