By: JOE FERNANDEZ
OUTGOING Sabah Police Chief, Datuk Noor Rashid Ibrahim, on transfer to Bukit Aman, has no regrets on his various comments including that on illegal immigrants in the local media.
“All my comments over my three and a half years as Sabah commissioner of police were to ensure that the Royal Malaysian Police would be accepted by society,” said Noor Rashid.
“There was never any hatred in my heart (in making comments) though my behaviour has sometimes led to discontent among some police officers and personnel.”
He was re-visiting his public comments, particularly over the weekend, on the sidelines of handing over his duties yesterday to his successor Hamzah Taib in Kota Kinabalu.
The ‘rotten apples’ among the estimated 6,000 police personnel in Sabah are enough to give the force a bad public image, Noor Rashid said.
These are the ones, who don't comply with orders, take their duties for granted, and a minority even does drugs, forcing the department to terminate them if corrective and other disciplinary measures fail.
He reiterated that during his stint, he empowered his men by increasing manpower, boosting their support, enhancing their capability and stressing on the ability to communicate.
Even so, he found Sabah a particularly difficult challenge because of the continuing influx of illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries.
He said there is no Sabah illegal immigrant quick fix because of the mountains of paperwork to be done before repatriating illegal immigrants. Also, other agencies like the Immigration Department and the state government are involved.
“The process (repatriation) takes time. The Indonesian and Philippine authorities have to come here and check to interview and verify them (illegals) and if they are satisfied, they issue the exit permits.”
The result, he said, is that the inflow pipe of illegals is big but the outflow is small and with consequences.
Noor Rashid sees part of the problem stemming from the long coastline of 1,448km which allows illegals to join their relatives in the state.
“Their relatives are willing to help them enter and stay illegally in the state. Then there are those who were born here and can't speak even a word of Tagalog or Filipino.”
He expects the federal government to make an announcement soon on the fate of the illegals in Sabah particularly those who were born in the state. This follows the findings and recommendations of the Lab on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah.
Noor Rashid was present during the meetings of the Lab, but did not want to disclose the findings and recommendations.
“The political masters will look into this - whether to send them back and where? Or what status to give those born here? Meanwhile, we concentrate only on the new illegal immigrants.”
Nabbing drug traffickers
The illegals, the police have long established, are involved in all sorts of crime including drugs, vending smuggled goods and illegally peddling a wide variety of goods.
Interestingly, there's no police base in Pulau Gaya which is the hotbed of smuggling activities off Kota Kinabalu. Noor Rashid attributes this to “the cost of setting up a police base”.
Drugs are a particularly difficult aspect of the police problem in Sabah. Noor Rashid has found that syabu, for example, is easy to produce and such activities are being carried out in the more remote locations. The attraction appears to be that abusers find that Sabah is an easy place to make money if one is engaged in illegal activities.
“The main problem with syabu, for example, is that the components are not controlled items. Firstly, syabu itself is methamphetamine which is only a controlled item under the Drugs Prescription Act,” he said.
The components can be brought into the state in small amounts that look like flour, to be processed in remote locations. Adding to the enforcement difficulties are police personnel who have never seen what drugs look like.
The main enforcement strategy now in the war on drugs is to focus on the airports and keep a lookout especially for Iranians, Nigerians and women from Third World countries.
Other areas are those close to the sea like Sandakan, Tawau, Lahad Datu, Kota Kinabalu, Labuan and squatter colonies occupied by illegal immigrants.
“This year alone, more than 60 drug trafficking cases had been detected at the airports. So, the strategy now is to focus on the airports until those involved in the drug trade devise new tactics.”
Noor Rashid agreed that the rape and murder rates in Sabah are quite high especially among the illegals “who can carry a grudge from generation to generation”.
Overall, the average of 23-25 cases a day in Sabah is equivalent to the rate in a district like Hulu Klang in Selangor, he added.
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