While Malaysians do understand the need to be secretive of security operations, what they are asking for is daily updates on a situation that threatens the country as a whole. It cannot be dismissed as a local problem as it involves the sovereignty of this country.
R. Nadeswaran, The Sun Daily
AS THIS column is being written, there are scores of intruders in this country. No one knows the exact number in Tanduo in Lahad Datu town in Sabah, but it varies depending on where it is coming from. But our inspector general of police says the public should not be influenced by online reports on the standoff, which he said were being spread through social media networks.
From what has been reported, they are subjects of the Sulu sultan and the latest is that he has asked the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) to help his followers who are running out of provisions.
According to The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Sultan Jamalul Kiram III wrote to the UNCHR in Manila on Feb 20, asking for protection for 250 members of the "Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo" whose lives, he said, were threatened by a food blockade thrown by Malaysia.
Jamalul has also written to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei asking for help in resolving the standoff in Tanduao peacefully. The UNCHR was furnished with a copy of Jamalul's letter to the sultan of Brunei, also dated Feb 20.
In the absence of official bulletins or announcements from the police, what choices have the people got? Even the exact numbers are hazy and on the Net, it varies from 100 to 400.
Since our authorities have no control over the press in the Philippines, it has gone to town with its stories and commentaries. The Philippine Daily Inquirer also says Malaysia is in a no-win situation as a result of the standoff in Sabah.
"If it uses deadly force on a small group of armed Filipino Muslims now holed up in the village ... members of the fiercest of Philippine Moro tribe, the Tausogs of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, will retaliate.