Sabahans warned about Islamic Caliphate

The defence minister warns the Islamists’ threat to come to Sabah is highly likely because it is their struggle.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabahans have been warned not to take threats to their security lightly in the wake of reports that the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) plans to include their state in an Islamic caliphate stretching from the southern Philippines to Indonesia.

It appears that Sarawak and Brunei are also in the sights of the Islamic Caliphate in the region.

“I do not intend to scare Sabahans but see what is happening in Iraq and Syria,” said Defence Minister Hishammudin Hussein Onn after a Penampang Umno divisional meeting on Sunday in the outskirts of the Sabah capital.

“It’s not impossible for the threat to come to Sabah because that is their struggle.”

Already, he added, Muslim secessionists in southern Philippines have pledged their allegiance to the Islamic state (IS) in Iraq and Syria. “This can be seen in a YouTube video uploaded on the net.”

This particular video, he stressed, showed BangsaMoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and Abu Sayaff, the latter a breakaway of the MNLF.

He hastened to add that the security situation, based on intelligence reports, was under control and there was nothing to be alarmed about.

The bottomline, continued Hishammuddin, was that the security of Sabah was provided for by the federal government and not the “secessionists” including those in the southern Philippines seeking to pull out the state from Malaysia.

“We are the ones fighting hard and dying,” said the Defence Minister referring to the ten deaths suffered by security forces following the incursion in Lahad Datu in February last year by a ragtag bunch of claimants to a defunct Sultanate in the Sulu Archipelago.

“Sabah’s security lies in the sincerity of the federal government to protect the state. The state’s security was under threat without the federal government’s vigilance.”

He advised the people not to get carried away by sentiments brought on by rhetoric and polemics in politics as it divided the country further. Malaysia would then become an easy target for its enemies to exploit, he cautioned.

“There were limitations in taking political positions and it would be meaningless if the country was ruled by irresponsible people.”