KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia must strengthen its defence system from within the community and its security forces, says Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.
The Defence Minister said this was especially crucial amid the militarisation of the Philippines' southernmost island of Balabac, which is close to Sabah waters.
He said although every nation has the right to pick who they want to work with to secure their defence system, Malaysia’s stand now was to build its defence mechanism from within, involving all citizens.
“This means that we want to build up people’s resilience. With strong resilience, it would turn into credible defence, credible deterrence,” he said after launching the Defence Literacy programme here Saturday (Sept 26).
Khaled admitted that one of the reasons why Sabah was chosen as the first stop was because of what was happening in the South China Sea.
This programme is aimed at increasing public awareness and encouraging involvement in strengthening defence systems, building patriotism, people’s resilience towards challenges and threats, as well as to boost morale and togetherness between the people and security forces.
Asked about the Philippines’ move to work with the US army, Khaled said that was their right and their prerogative.
“For us in Malaysia, we need to take our own measures to build up our defence,” he added.
He said although the area of focus on the Balabac issue was small, Sabah might and could feel the spillover effects due to its close proximity.
“We know the power fights in the South China Sea. If anything unpredictable happens, it might also affect us,” Khaled said.
“So that is why with more presence of foreign military forces, we cannot sit still. We need to also take steps to step up our defence system and our position in Sabah,” he stressed.
The US-backed enhancement of the Philippines' military base in Balabac Island, is located about 50km from Sabah's Pulau Banggi.
The Balabac militarisation – involving upgrading the military base and developing a 3km airstrip on the island – saw Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim raise concerns over the militarisation on Balabac Island, which is occurring amid the growing US-China rivalry for influence in the South China Sea.
Balabac is one of nine Philippine sites covered by the Philippines-US Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement, which analysts say draws Sabah into the frontline rivalry in the South China Sea between Washington and Beijing over the South China Sea and Taiwan.
