Endless kidnappings / piracies are very tragic news for Sabah

Endless kidnappings / piracies are very tragic news for Sabah 22 June, 2016 In the Philippines press, four Malaysians were reportedly abducted in Sabah, Malaysia on 15th June, 2016 Wednesday night, according to Senior Supt. Joselito Salido, the provincial police director of Tawi-Tawi. That could be true although the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the police were still awaiting confirmation from Philippines authorities. I would like to share this experience related to me to our PM/ DPM/Home Minister/ Defence Minister/Musa Aman/Adenan Satem, there are a lot of piracies/kidnappings without letting the Police know. The fishermen would just pay off the demand of ransom and pass on the ransom to consumers, and that is why seafood is so expensive. The modus operandi is like that as I was told by a fisherman with a big boat, and the pirates would come up the boat at night using hooks and armed with guns and demand ransom from the victims on the boat and money to be sent off by atms/transfer to bank accounts. The story goes like that the pirates would demand like RM100k and then once that money was through and the victims thought they would go home, but not so as another RM100k for the next kidnapper and so on for each kidnappers on boat ( a workable strategy), and it could be 4, 5 or 6 kidnappers. Police would not be informed or no deal with the victims to stay alive. So only God knows how many such piracies/kidnappings have been in the past decades that go unreported but resolved on the fishing boats. Despite as much as about RM1.3 billion that was given to Esscom since 2013 with RM146.9 millions, RM660m in 2014 and RM523m in Budget 2016, not much improvement to the security in the area has been observed. So have the Government really spent the said amount in the achieving the targets? Where are the two submarines worth over RM7b in securing the deep Sulu and Mindanao Seas east of Sabah? In the meantime, how would the demand of RM30m for the four recent victims of Sarawakians be set free on alleged payment in cash of RM12m on 7/8 June 2016 but only RM8.8m reached the Abu Sayapp kidnappers? So how would we understand the perception of ransom that had reached so low below the initial demand that the victims were released? Were the 4 victims already in the hands of the “authority” when the money reached Abu Sayapp? The said RM12m were delivered to the Malaysian Police by the local bank in Sandakan in 12 metal boxes on 24th May, 2016 and yet the victims were free on 7/8 June, 2016, a delay of two weeks. Why the money took two weeks to move to the hands of Abu Sayapp kidnappers? Isn’t it the very important time that the ransom money reached the kidnappers as soon as possible to secure their release before any unfortunate eventuality that could happen to them for the delay of the cash unnecessarily? What actually happened in the two weeks when cash of such amounts were in transits? Maybe the Police on both sides share this challenge of the delay. What actually happen to the difference of RM3.2m not received by Abu Sayapp is another issue that had emerged later? Would the whole episode be ever be told? Would kidnappings/piracies be things of the past soon around Sabah? Joshua Y. C. Kong