PSS – Sabah’s hot button issue

On the ground: Mohamad speaking to PBS supporters while campaigning in Sabah.

BEAUFORT: Sometime in the late 1960s, Manila declared war on the Moro Muslim insurgency in southern Philippines, which saw thousands of southerners flee to Sabah to escape the civil war.

Five decades later, Sabah continues to grapple with this refugee problem with the different state governments trying but failing to find a solution to the complex problem. Some estimate a third of Sabah’s nearly three million population are refugees or economic migrants with local communities feeling threatened.