KOTA KINABALU: Relocating security bases from the west to the east coast of Sabah will improve the international community’s confidence in the state, says a Parti Warisan leader.
Tungku assemblyman Assaffal P. Alian said the government should consider this following Britain’s recent lifting of its travel ban on Sabah’s northern Kudat district.
He reiterated the call made by party president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal for the relocation of the Lok Kawi Camp and Paradise Camp in the state’s west coast to the east Coast as a permanent solution to border security.
“This is not only to prevent possible future intrusions in the east coast of Sabah but also to end piracy, illegal immigration and smuggling,” he said in a statement here yesterday.
Assafal said there was no point in lifting the curfew this year only to reinstate it again should the threat of kidnap for ransom or even militancy resurface.
The British High Commission in Malaysia said in a statement on Nov 29 that the UK’s decision to lift a travel ban on Kudat was the result of a rigorous review by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
It represented the first major change on the UK’s travel advice for Sabah since 2013.
British High Commissioner Ailsa Terry said the change in travel advisory was a testament on efforts by the Malaysian government to improve security in eastern Sabah.
The British government acknowledged that the security situation in eastern Sabah had improved, over a decade after the Lahad Datu incursion in 2013.
