:East Coast Sabah to have more radar stations: Allatif

TAWAU, The East Coast of Sabah will obtain a total of between 8 to 9 radar stations to combat criminal cases at sea and the possible entry of militants as well as to ensure that kidnapping cases as the one which happened at Sipadan and Pandanan islands would not re-occur.

Joint Military Panglima Lieutenant General Dato’ Allatif Mohd. Noor said that the first such radar would be build after October this year and the subsequent radars will compliment the existing radar and surveillance from the air, land and sea.

Allatif said this during the ground breaking ceremony of the East Coast Sabah buildings for the Joint Military Force 2(JMF2) based at Kukusan army camp here yesterday morning.

`We have the technology to conduct day and night surveillance from our Air Force using Forward Looking Infra Red (FLIR) with the additional radars would further enhance our surveillance work’, he said this in a press conference held after the ceremony.

He added that Tawau was chosen to house the headquarter of the JMF2 establishment because of its geostrategic location and an area at Tinagat had been identified to have one of the radar to be build. Allatif also said that they had contacted the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) on better co-ordinate the `Reaction Force’ as part of the effort to ensure a strong presence of the security forces in the area while at the same time had made request for more patrol boats for their surveillance work.

Ealier in his opening speech, Allatif said Joint Military Headquarter (JMH) was set up in 2006 to take over control of duties conducted during the `Sand Ops.’ which was before being handled by the 5th Brigade headquarter after kidnapping cases took place at Sipadan and Pandanan islands in April 2000 where 21 tourists and resort staffs were sped away from Sipadan and another 3 more from Pandanan at a later stage.

`This operation is being set up at a Ac Hoc basis but plans were made to ensure a smooth running of all operations as then JMF2 then had only 17 officers and other ranks but now had swelled to 36 with permanent status’, he explained.

He added that this shows the commitment of the government in the construction of JMF2 buildings costing RM4.9 million and upon completion the headquarter will be able to obtain real time information.

Allatif said that the peace and strong security felt is due to the existing military bases such as KD Sri Semporna, KD Sri Wangsa, Azumi and Dogoton base at Banggi island as well as other military bases while at the same time providing work for many locals.

`Nerarly 85 percent of the manpower from the Boat Assault Company are made up of local people’, he explained.

He also said that the strong security presence from the army and complimented by other security forces had brought a strong economy citing that the tourist influx had risen from 2.4 million in 2007 as compared to only 1.2 million in 2002.

At the same time, Allatif also congratulate commander of the 516th Territorial Army Brigadier General Datuk Liew Yun Fah for his zeal in recruiting locals into the fold resulting in many of them filling the vacant posts at the regular army establishment.

Allatif also hand over three All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) to JMF2 to compliment the existing equipment of the group. Also present during the ceremony was Brigadier General Sheikh Mokhsin Sheikh Hassan, the commanding officer of the JMH.