Joint task force to help fishermen fight thefts
SANDAKAN: A dialogue session between the local authorities including the police, Sandakan Municipal Council (SMC) and members of the Sandakan Fishing (Tongkang) Association was set up for the latter to discuss problems that they were facing.
SMC was represented by its president, Datuk Peter Hii, while Sandakan district police chief ACP Mohd Azhar Hamin represented the police at the dialogue session which was held at the Association’s office at Kampung Pukat, Karamunting here, yesterday.
During the session, the fishermen expressed problems that they have been facing, that their catch from the sea was being stolen before it could reach the market.
One of the fishermen, Chia said when his staff caught fish in the ocean, the staff were threatened by a few irresponsible men at sea (either on other ships or boats, or on the jetty) to sell their catch from the deep sea to the thieves.
Chia said most of their catch were being stolen and sold off and only a small amount of seafood made it to the market to be sold.
“This problem has been going on for the past two years and sometimes we earn very little, while other times we lose money. It costs a lot for our ships to go to the deep sea but these thieves just take our catch and resell them to the people of Sandakan.
“We have lodged a police report about this. Sadly, no action has been taken so far,” Chia said.
He said the police had taken action and arrested a total of five ship crew on August 7, but four of those who were caught were the fishing vessels owner’s staff and only one buyer (thief) was arrested, but was then released.
Azhar in response to Chia’s statement said the one buyer who was released was a decision that was made by the prosecutor and the police had no control over what action was taken against those arrested in court.
However, to solve the problem now, Azhar said the police would establish a task force which would include the marine police, Criminal Investigation Department, and the Sandakan Municipal Council’s enforcement team to have regular patrols and inspections to curb this problem and to catch those responsible in conducting the illegal business.
“I apologise that the investigating officers assigned to this problem were not able to come up with a conclusion or result in a short time. I will make sure to monitor them so that they will be able to handle this issue more effectively.
“To make the fishermen’s jobs more convenient, I will also send some officers to come to the Association (at Kampung Pukat here) to record statements of those who are able to provide relevant information about this case. I hope the fishermen are also willing to collaborate with the police,” Azhar said.
Meanwhile, SMC president Datuk Peter Hii said on the SMC side, the first thing he would do would be to take down all stalls at the central market that were operating (selling seafood and other goods) without a licence.
“I will be strict with this. If the stalls have no licence, they will have to leave and we will take down their stalls. This is to be fair to fishermen and other sellers who are paying rent to SMC and also the thieves who stole your fish would not be able to sell their seafood.
“I will start this operation next week and I hope I will be able to get help from the police so that the SMC enforcers could conduct the operation with the help of the police,” Hii said, adding that he was going to replace dim lamps in the market with new lamps to make the market brighter.
Hii also told the fishermen that he would be open to listen to their complaints and they could send a representative to arrange a meeting with him to do that.
Karamunting assemblyman George Hiew Vun Zin, who arranged the dialogue session, said such session had been conducted before but the problem continued. He expressed hope that the dialogue session this time would solve the fishermen’s problems as soon as possible.
“With the joint task force and collaboration between the police, SMC and the local fishermen, I hope this problem would be resolved as soon as possible,” he added.
The dialogue session was attended by about 30 Sandakan Fishing (Tongkang) Association members, including its chairman, Lee Shau Kun.