THE Suluk terrorists — in their deluded claims that Sabah is theirs for the taking — would have realised by now that a full-scale invasion to purloin the state would be militarily undoable and unwise, so guerilla warfare, similar to tactics deployed by communist terrorists during the Emergency, was more practical.
This would be the name of the game following the Suluks’ disastrous Lahad Datu stand-off in February last year: 235 of their terrorists invaded the isolated Felda village of Tanduo and toyed with Malaysian negotiators for weeks before unmasking their devilish intent that resulted in the killing of eight policemen, a bloody skirmish, and galvanised Malaysian security forces that routed the invaders.
In the intervening months, other fiendish factions meted out kidnappings on Pulau Pom Pom and the Singamata Reef resort off Semporna, though it would be tempting to define these as acts of terrorism when they were really exploitative criminal acts. But, the kidnappings were bad enough to rattle the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom), tasked with keeping the peace, and terrorists off Sabah.
Over the past year, Esscom might have sensed that the kidnappings were the beginning of a bad sign, a wake-up call, perhaps, so it did the needed organisational restructuring and sequestrated a Malaysia International Shipping Corporation container freighter, the MT Bunga Mas Lima, to Sabah as a mother ship to beef up security support near the Philippine border.
Unfortunately, Esscom’s initiatives have not worked out yet: the beauty of operating as guerillas — small, tight and stealth units — is that a handful of Suluk interlopers can penetrate the tightest dragnet.
In the case of Saturday night’s incident, it was likely engaged by a platoon deployed by the so-called Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo, who desire Sabah for themselves. They killed Corporal Abd Rajah Jamuan and kidnapped Constable Zakiah Aleip in a devious ambush at a Pulau Mabul resort off Semporna.
Zakiah, if he is still alive, is the leverage they will exercise to extract ransom money to fund their fight-to-the-death struggle to purloin Sabah. This much needs to be understood: there is no negotiation with these brutes who have proven the twisted dictum that they will kill first and will skedaddle without bothering to provide answers.
Saturday night’s attack struck the heart of the security forces 15 months after the Lahad Datu skirmish: this should compel Esscom to rewire its tactical nous, from being too defensive to being ultra-receptive. To squelch the Suluks’ shadowy attacks, you have to start thinking and fighting like them, a basic military manoeuvre.
In a nutshell: Esscom would construct multiple units of commandos who won’t be stationed by Sabah’s seaside in anticipation of another attack, which will be inevitable, but to penetrate the terrorists’ hangouts and hit them hard where it would hurt most.
Our commandos would have to carry out a two-pronged search-and-destroy op: one to flush out perpetrators hiding within the local populace and, two, to carry out strike missions on where the terrorists hole up.
Esscom cannot afford to play the waiting game. It has been too costly to life, limb and property. Yes, it would be extremely hard, messy and politically incorrect at times, but this is what deploying the military means in times of warfare, while commandos who partake in these high-risk missions will be spirited, full of derring-do and willing to sacrifice self for country.
What Malaysians on the other side of the South China Sea need to shore up is to back Esscom’s efforts with unflinching support — moral, legal and political — and, perhaps, implore a new law that governs, controls and diminishes terrorists, not just the Suluks, but also the so-called jihadists baying for blood.
It’s simple: these people do not play on a level playing field and neither do they recognise or respect human rights. Like all terrorists of this type, only their bloodlust or whatever crazed dogma, ideology and pathos is fulfilling.
In footballing analogy, the referee can slap red cards at all these players for the foulest transgressions and, yet, they would stubbornly remain on the field, insisting of their right, no matter how abrogated, to play on.
Which means no amount of negotiation, stick or carrot is ever satisfactory. It is either we capitulate to their ways, which is intrinsically unthinkable, or it is death to the establishment, even if innocents, adults or children end up as blasé collateral damage.
This is also not the time to be finicky or retain a shrinking violet mentality in appeasing their aggression or to hurl cheap political shots against the military in their deadliest battle in many decades to kill off these monsters.