Intelligence gathering on transborder crime stepped up

LABUAN: The Malaysian security agencies are stepping up intelligence-gathering efforts and transborder collaboration with their

Philippine counterparts to effectively tackle transborder crime, especially in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone).

Outgoing Sabah Police Commissioner, Datuk Abdul Rashid Harun said the collaboration on information exchange on transborder crime was on track.

"Despite the Philippine government's permission to allow the entry of Malaysian security forces into the country's waters to resolve the kidnapping issue, we feel that exchange of information between the two country's security agencies must be enhanced.

"Our security agencies are not familiar with the kidnappers' hideouts, and for us to enter their area is rather not a wise move.

"Therefore, as far as we are concerned, enhancing information exchange and transborder collaboration is much more important," he told a press conference during his working visit to the Labuan police station, yesterday.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, in his inaugural visit to Malaysia recently, granted permission for Malaysian security forces to enter his country's waters in pursuit of not only kidnappers, but also militants who have been terrorising Sabah's east coast.

Calling this a new development in Putrajaya-Manila ties, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abd Razak had reportedly said that the two leaders agreed on the need to stamp out the security risk which also affected Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Abdul Rashid said the Sabah police contingent had done their level best to safeguard the state's security and the country's sovereignty.

"We have enhanced our training programmes and intensified the fighting preparations against terrorism, which have not been done before," he said.

Abdul Rashid said Sabah's security aspect was relatively different (in terms of threats) with the vast 1,733.7km stretch of the state's shoreline from Kudat to Tawau and being surrounded by 361 islands with some of them located close to southern Philippines, prompting for more consistent surveillance.

"As such, we are unable to rule out the possibility of transborder crime like kidnapping, but we continue to step up the surveillance of the state's waters to curb such incidents," he said.

Abdul Rashid also said all district police contingents in Sabah and the Federal Territory of Labuan have displayed excellent performance in maintaining national security and public order.

He said the cooperation and high commitment showed by members of the police force had allowed all planning pertaining to national security to run smoothly.

"Throughout my one-year stint as Sabah police commisioner, a lot of efforts had been made to boost policing including (providing) training and (making) preparations in dealing with any kind of threats and cross-border crime, which have not been done before this.

"I'm also satisfied with the cooperation given by all district police chiefs and members, including those in Labuan who have facilitated all planning on national security," he said.

Abdul Rashid said Sabah was pretty different from other states in terms of security threat, due to its size and coastline of 1,733.7 km from Kudat to Tawau and with 361 islands, many of which were located near the Philippine border.

He also said that the rise or drop in the crime index did not reflect the real performance of the police force but it indicated the level of public satisfaction towards the security of their surroundings.

"I have not received any public complaint on the services rendered by the police but more on the feedback to improve policing," he said, adding that there was no issue of intervention by politicians throughout his stint.