A West Malaysian Dilemma !

Hantu Laut

In Sabah you don't mess around with these ex-mundus (pirates), they can make your life hang in the balance, or worst case scenario, you are dead meat. Their hearts can be solidified in hatred and revenge.

Two West Malaysians have been abducted by unknown armed group near Lahad Datu, Sabah. Police is still investigating the case.

Abusers, rapists and abductors, do they share the same predicament ?

In West Malaysia reported maid abuse may be just tip of the iceberg, there may be many unreported cases. 

Recent case of an employer raping his 15-year old maid with active participation and consent of his wife is shocking. Even more shocking the abuse seem to transcend not one ethnic group but covers all the ethnic groups in West Malaysia. Here, a 26-year old Indian girl claimed she was raped and abused by her employer for over a year. Here, a Cambodian maid claimed she was physically abused and not given food to eat for days.

Maid abuse and rape of female migrant workers had given Malaysia a bad name. Even the arm of the law, our police, has brought disrepute to the police force and disgrace to the nation for alleged gang-rape of an Indonesian girl in their custody. 

Almost all cases of maid abuse occurred in West Malaysia. Sabah and Sarawak seemed to have been spared this phenomenom, a social disorder that requires some medical investigation.

There have been talks of allowing Malaysian to employ French maids to work in the country. Hahaha! how nice, for a change, to have the whites as your servant and not your master.

It is rumoured that the abduction of the two West Malaysians was by disgruntled ex-employees not paid their salaries. How true is hard to tell. Only after thorough police probe we may get to know the truth, or not know at all.

Sabah porous border is haven for criminals crossing between Sabah and the Philippines.

The gist of the story, never owe your workers salary, be abusive, or delay payment. They are as much human as you are and should be treated humanely, and don't rule out the power to strike back at you, over what you think is a meagre sum but a mountain to these poor souls. 

Land Grabs And Land Pirates

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Land grab was unheard of in Sabah before.The pirates were mostly at sea, plundering coastal villages and any sea crafts that they fancy would bring them valuable loots.

Most pirates were from the southern Philippines mainly from the Sulu Archipelago.As a group they are called Suluk but most prefered to be called by the name of their tribes. Be they Bajaus,Illanuns,Tausogs or Ubians their forefathers have indulged in piracy of some sort in the past.Even as recent as the eighties pirate attacks on small coastal villages were not uncommon.

In most islands of the southern Philippines, law and order, doesn't really exist.This is an exclusive zone where the central government has little influence.A murder would be settled with another murder.Justice is at the end of the barrel of a gun or the thin edge of a machete. Manila has no control or the will to enforce the law in many of the islands in the south.Many years of neglect and failure to bring development by the majority Christian government to the mainly Muslim south had excited lawlessness and armed struggle for secession.Those who escaped from the restive and volatile province mostly ended up in Sabah.

A nasty incident at Kunak recently where disputes over ownership of land ended in confrontation with illegal immigrants purportedly employed by a cooperative society who claimed ownership of the land that ended in murders and serious injuries on unarmed smallholders.The smallholders had obtained a court injunction to allow them to enter the land.The land pirates showed no respect for the Court Order and proceeded to attack the smallholders.The confrontation turned to murderous rage when two persons were murdered and scores seriously injured. These are the products of the kind of lawlessness coming from the southern Philippines. They came here as illegals and behaved as if Sabah is part of the southern Philippines, where they can act with impunity. They came across the porous sea border freely, as and when they like, occasionally encouraged and supported by politicians from the area.

Land matters have always been a dicey business in Sabah and a source of quick money.When government opened up new areas and wished to give away thousand of acres to the landless with 15 acres allotted to each applicant, there would be hundreds of applicants.More often than not the land would have been sold to big plantation companies even before the titles were issued to the applicants.The applicants would give 'Power of Attorney' to an agent to sell the land and in many instances they either get cheated or didn't get the amount they were promised.Most land given out to the kampong people ended up this way because they have no intention to till the land in the first place.

In some areas where land were to be given to big companies for cultivation, the kampong people would protest and in some cases put up blockages and make spurious claims of customary rights. In almost all of these type of cases some greedy politicians would be behind it, instigating the people to cause disturbance to try stop the government from alienating the land to big companies because they have special interest in the land themselves.

In the Kunak case, the Chairperson of the Tingkayu Cooperative Land Development Society Limited Hajjah Alima Usman said the cooperative had never hired any illegal immigrants to work for them and also wanted the police to investigate the people who claimed to be smallholders of the land.She also claimed there were two court injunctions issued by the same judge, one on 1 Feb 2008 and subsequently 18 March 2008 that ruled the small holders as trespassers.

I believe the police should also investigate Hajjah Alima Usman and see whether as head of the cooperative she in a party to the deadly attack on the small holders.

Stupid Malaysians !

Hantu Laut

Terrible! From making music to making movies and anything of artistic endeavours we are always in mediocrity.Not only we lack originality we are also bad imitators.We are Malaysians boleh!

Even the Indonesians and Filipinos are better than us in the arts and the art of robbing.Piracy off Tioman ! Look what type of ship and loots those stupid Malaysian pirate wannabes took.Probably not enough to pay for their petrol money.Robbing a collier!. Goodness gracious me! Not that I encourage and condone piracy.If you want to do a job, do it well.

Maybe, those pirate wannabes should go to Somali's School of Piracy and learn if you wannabe a Long John Silver you should cut off one leg and shouldn't have your balls bigger than your brain.

Lanun bodoh!
Malaysia Boleh!

Could they be Indonesians?

Pirates!

Hantu Laut

A small bite of history.

An extract from a British Royal Navy ship's magazine.The pirates were southern Filipinos.Those that swarmed the state of Sabah.We do need some of them for our labour force but not to the extent of what we have now.

THE NEWS

EVENING HERALD
May 17, 1961

The British frigate St Brides Bay has detained a suspected pirate vessel in the Celebes Sea, a Royal Navy statement announced in Singapore today.

The Naval statement said two motor boats carrying 21 men - 11 of them armed - intercepted a motor trading vessel on May 12 and pirated her cargo of 207 bags of copra.

THE STORY

We left Singapore on the May 9 and made a quiet and pleasant passage to North Borneo, having rendezvoued with HM Ships HOUGHTON and FISKERTON returning from their patrol in order to gain the benefit of their experiences. By the evening of Saturday 13th we had rounded the northern tip of Borneo and made the remainder of the passage darkened in order to avoid making our presence too readily apparent.
Pirates!

At 0600 the following morning we met a police launch out from Tawau and embarked Mr R H Hansen, the police commissioner, together with six victims of piracy to assist in identifying any suspects, and three local policemen. Within an hour of this we had sighted and hauled alongside our first 'kumpit' -which proved a fortunate meeting. The kumpit, the 'YOUNG STAR', had been involved in a running battle with a pirate the previous evening. Although she had escaped capture, one member of the crew had been killed by a home-made bomb, and six others had been injured by splinters or rifle fire - these we were able to bring on board for medical treatment. This incident, before breakfast on a calm, sunny Sunday morning, brought home to all of us the fact that our patrol was not to be just another cruise. From the 'YOUNG STAR' we now had some definite information and were able to plan our search accordingly.
Sorrowful bunch contemplating future

For the next thirty-six hours we continued the search whilst the trail became slowly colder During this time we stopped and searched or questioned numerous sailing and motor craft but gained little useful information, and the sight of our armed boarding-party 'standing-to' became quite commonplace. There were numerous false alarms, for we found the Celebes Sea to abound in floating trees, which, at a distance were difficult to distinguish from the small craft for which we were looking. This difficulty was increased at night, and on at least one occasion we illuminated a clump of trees which the boarding-party had been waiting to board.
Engineer - tethered

Shortly after 2100 on the second night on patrol we closed a radar contact which began to take evasive action when the range had closed to about one mile, to the extent that the ship had some difficulty in placing her in a position in which we could properly use the searchlight. When this contact was illuminated she was seen to be a fast motor-kumpit resembling that discribed by the crew of the 'YOUNG STAR'. She was stopped and the crew brought on board for questioning whilst the boat was searched - a search that revealed two automatic weapons, a rifle and ammunition hidden beneath a pile of copra. The discovery of these arms, together with the results of questioning, gave sufficient grounds for arrest. A prize crew was embarked, and the real crew were kept on board the ship under guard except for the engineer whom we kept with us in the kumpit. By 2230 we in the kumpit were underway again and heading for Tawau, some 120 miles distant, escorted by the ship. I shall remember that night for a long time, for the smell of rancid copra takes some getting used to and permeates everything - clothes, food and even cigarettes: in the heat of the day it becomes worse still. The native engineer that we took with us was given little freedom by his police guard and spent most of the time tethered like a dog by a halter round his neck; had one not seen their victims in the 'YOUNG STAR' two days earlier it would have been easy to have felt sorry for him.
Attacked by pirates.Motor kumpit 'Young Star'
with casualties.

Shortly after sunrise the following morning the ship left us to go on into Tawau and we followed at our best speed of about nine knots. Our arrival in Tawau in the afternoon caused great interest ashore and the interest heightened into excitement when the haltered engineer was led to the local gaol.

A report of the incident was released to the press by the Admiralty and during the next few weeks we were entertained by numerous press-cuttings which told our story in various ways - and not always very accurately. The most accurate report that reached us originated in the ship as a letter home and came back as a full back page article in a local Ulster newspaper complete with one of the Buffer's photographs of Able Seaman Hodge at his best (with pirates).

We have recently heard that our captives have each been sentenced to twelve years imprisonment.