VZCZCXRO1041
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHKL #1948/01 2900511
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 170511Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7787
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM 0052
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUALA LUMPUR 001948 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MTS, DS/ATA AND DS/IP/ITA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/12/2016 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV PINR KDEM KISL SMIG ASEC MY
SUBJECT: SABAH: POROUS BORDERS; PROBLEMS WITH FOREIGNERS; UNHAPPY UMNO COALITION PARTNER 
 
REF: A. KUALA LUMPUR 1862 
     ¶B. KUALA LUMPUR 1935 
 
Classified By: Political Section Chief Mark D. Clark for reasons 1.4 (b 
, d). 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (C) The police, political leaders, a human rights official 
in the East Malaysia state of Sabah recently expressed their 
concerns to us about rising crime and the security impact 
from the high number of foreigners - both legal and illegal - 
residing in the state.  Sabah's Acting Police Commissioner 
said illegal migrants and other foreigners committed three 
out of four violent crimes in the state, but he did not 
address terrorist threats or transnational crime syndicates. 
On other issues, a Sabah state minister from Prime Minister 
Abdullah Badawi's political party, UMNO, criticized the PM's 
intellectual capacity and said the PM's inner circle gives 
him "bad advice."  The minister predicted the UMNO national 
assembly in November would be "a timid affair."  One of the 
16 commissioners from Malaysia's government-funded national 
human rights commission (Suhakam) told us the government 
views Suhakam as "a pest."  Seconding other comments from the 
Suhakam commissioner about the large influx of foreigners 
into Sabah, two state assemblymen expressed trepidation about 
the state's security situation.  The pending U.S. Border 
Control Assessment Initiative (ref A) will assist our efforts 
to better understand the security ramifications of Sabah's 
porous borders and identify ways the U.S. can assist.  End 
Summary. 
 
Police Face Challenges from Criminals - And Parliament 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶2. (C) Sabah's Acting Police Commissioner, Mohd Bakri Zinin, 
told us on October 4 that "illegal migrants and other 
foreigners" account for about three-fourths of violent crimes 
committed in the state.  He said almost all the crime was 
locally based and that transnational crime syndicates were 
"not much of a problem" in Sabah.  Zinin notably did not 
address the issue of terrorists either located in or 
transiting Sabah.  When asked about the potential for human 
trafficking into the Malaysian federal territory island of 
Labuan, near Sabah's western coast, Zinin stated flatly, 
"There is no trafficking problem in Labuan.  Those women are 
all volunteers who claim to be victims when caught."  (Note: 
Septel addresses prostitution on Labuan.  End Note.) 
 
¶3. (C) Zinin criticized a recently enacted amendment to the 
criminal procedure code that eliminated prosecutors' usage of 
police-obtained confessions in trying criminal defendants. 
Confessions are now only admissible if done in front of a 
magistrate.  Zinin said the amendment "will hurt our ability 
to get convictions."  He stated, "As a result, we'll likely 
make greater use of (Malaysia's four preventative detention 
laws), even though we know this will bring criticism from 
Suhakam and the NGOs."  (Note: The laws he referenced are the 
Internal Security Act, Restricted Residence Act, Dangerous 
Drugs Act, and Emergency Ordinance.  They allow the police 
and the internal security ministry to jointly incarcerate 
individuals for extended periods without trial, in cases 
where police lack sufficient evidence to obtain a criminal 
conviction.  From our local sources, we believe 700 - 1,000 
Malaysians suspected of criminal activity are currently 
jailed under the Emergency Ordinance alone.  End Note.) 
 
UMNO Minister Swipes at Prime Minister Abdullah... 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶4. (C) While making unsolicited comments about Prime Minister 
Abdullah Badawi's public image and job performance, Sabah's 
Minister of Youth and Sports, Masidi Manjun, told us, 
"Abdullah is not an intellectual and is a bit slow in his 
thinking."  He said the PM is "getting bad advice from his 
inner circle" regarding both the content and "scripted 
shouting" of some of his latest speeches to his ethnic Malay 
political base.  Manjun, who formally headed Sabah's primary 
government-funded think tank (the Institute of Development 
Studies), told us of a private comment made by former PM 
Mahathir during a recent trip to Japan.  Mahathir reportedly 
told a senior Japanese politician, "Japan is the home of the 
rising sun, and Malaysia is home to the rising son-in-law." 
This was a reference to PM Abdullah's son-in-law Khairy 
Jamaluddin, who serves as the deputy president of UMNO Youth. 
 With Mahathir's recent failure to be elected as an UMNO 
delegate at the party's national assembly in November, Manjun 
predicted the assembly will be "a timid affair," with no 
major pronouncements or surprises. 
 
...And Foreigners in His State 
------------------------------ 
 
¶5. (C) Manjun complained that Sabah was "flooded with 
foreigners."  He singled out Filipino Muslims from Mindanao 
as "especially troublesome."  He said, "They are not as 
devout as us."  He told us the state's Filipinos were "using 
our social services and not integrating into society," and 
that "vagrancy and violence" were rampant within Sabah's 
Filipino community.  He called Sabah's maritime and land 
borders "very porous" and expressed concern that Sabah's 
foreign residents were starting to become politically active. 
 He acknowledged, however, the economic importance of Sabah's 
foreign population.  With regard to Sabah's large number of 
illegal foreign workers, estimated to total over 750,000, 
Manjun said, "We need them here, or our economy would 
collapse." 
 
Fallout from UMNO-Fueled Population Boom in Sabah 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶6. (C)  UMNO's main Sabah-based partner party, PBS, remains 
publicly indignant about UMNO grants of citizenship and 
related voting rights during the 1990s to over 600,000 
foreigners (predominantly Muslims from Indonesia and 
Mindanao), in return for those individuals' votes in Sabah's 
state assembly elections.  Two PBS state assemblymen, Ching 
Eng Leong and Samson Chin Chee Tsu, told us on October 4 that 
former PM Mahathir began the initiative prior to the 1994 
state assembly election, in order to ensure UMNO's political 
takeover of Sabah.  UMNO's control was further solidified 
during the 1999 state election, as UMNO granted more 
foreigners citizenship and voting rights under what came to 
be known as "Project Mahathir."  According to Samson, PBS 
switched from its opposition party status in 2000 and allied 
itself with UMNO.  Ching said, "UMNO had completely taken 
over by that time.  They paid off our party leaders and 
several assemblymen in cash, and threatened to freeze our 
constituencies out of federal and state funding if we didn't 
join them."  Since 2000, the state assembly has remained 100 
percent controlled by the UMNO-led coalition; opposition 
parties in Sabah have no elected representatives. 
 
¶7. (C) Suhakam recently researched the allegations 
surrounding Project Mahathir and concurred with PBS' 
findings.  According to Suhakam, Sabah's legal resident 
population increased 362 percent to 2.6 million from 1970 to 
2000, compared to a population increase of only 135 percent 
over the same time period in the neighboring state of 
Sarawak.  This substantial increase in Sabah's legal 
residents excludes an influx of over 750,000 foreigners 
holding invalid identity cards and visas - or no documents at 
all - according to Suhakam.  According to Samson, a 
UK-educated lawyer whose electoral district encompasses Tawau 
on the east coast near the Indonesian border, Filipinos and 
Indonesians outnumber Malaysians 3 to 1 along Sabah's east 
coast from Sandakan to Tawau.  He said, "The security 
situation in the area is not good."  He also claimed that 
corruption in Tawau is rampant among police and immigration 
officers.  He said it had "tripled over the last 30 years." 
He and his wife recently refused to attend an event that 
gathered public and private sector leaders on the resort 
island of Mabul, off the east coast of Sabah, as he feared an 
attack on the gathering by Mindanao-based Muslim extremists. 
The event took place without incident. 
 
Government Ignores Suhakam 
-------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) With regard to the plight of Malaysia's largely 
impoverished rural indigenous persons in Borneo, Suhakam's 
Vice Chairman and resident Commissioner in Sabah, Simon 
Sipaun, echoed the sentiments expressed to us by his fellow 
Suhakam commissioner in Sarawak (ref B).  He said he spends 
most of his time on indigenous persons' issues and lamented 
the government's lack of support for Suhakam.  He said, 
"We're viewed as a pest."  Sipuan told us that prisons in the 
state are "50 percent to 75 percent overcrowded" and that 
about three-fourths of all prisoners are illegal migrants and 
other foreigners.  He described conditions in the state's 
three illegal migrant detention centers as "overcrowded and 
generally poor."  Sipuan felt the large number of Filipinos 
on the state's east coast represented a potential security 
threat "if they decide to become more politically active, or 
if parts of Mindanao become more autonomous." 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9. (C) Among all Malaysian states, Sabah faces uniquely 
severe border control and related security pressures. 
Filipinos and Indonesians move easily - and often illegally - 
between Sabah and their respective home countries.  UMNO 
leaders in Sabah and Kuala Lumpur will likely continue to 
remain silent with regard to the deleterious effects of 
Project Mahathir, as this initiative achieved its primary 
goal (UMNO political dominance) many years ago; they consider 
it "old news."  In any case, a significant reduction in 
Sabah's foreign-born population could only be reversed in the 
near term through an UMNO-led effort to round up and deport 
the very workers that drive Sabah's natural resource-based 
economy.  While Malaysia periodically launches campaigns to 
expel illegal workers, even PBS' leaders concede this is 
highly unlikely to be carried out to the point of seriously 
harming the state's economy.  The U.S.  Border Control 
Assessment Initiative (BCAI) focused on the Sulu and Sulawesi 
sea areas of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines will 
enhance our understanding of the security challenges facing 
Sabah and ways we can assist.  We currently are working to 
obtain GOM approval for the Sabah field portion. 

SHEAR