MIRI – Rural Sarawak is being used as a “dumping ground” for alleged gangsters and other bad-hat criminals banished by the authorities from their home states, a social activist has alleged.
Harry Wing, who hails from Belaga district in central Sarawak, said remote villages and small towns are being used as convenient venues to “relocate” those banished under the Prevention of Crimes Act (Poca) 1959.
Speaking to The Vibes, he said the problem has been a constant source of anxiety for local rural folk.
“Rural Sarawak has often been used to house suspected bad hats or those with criminal records and has restricted residence orders on them,” he said.
“These people are from cities and towns outside Sarawak, and also from cities and big towns inside Sarawak.
“They had gotten into trouble with the authorities for unlawful activities or suspected crimes, and were then banished from their places of origin and relocated here.
“I have heard complaints before from locals in various parts of rural Sarawak who suddenly encountered strangers; strangers who came from outside unannounced and ended up living in houses or rooms in certain places.
They are not known to the locals and their backgrounds are secretive. Sometimes they end up working in certain business places that require workers.
Wing said that locals in these places do not protest or create tension against the strangers as their enculturation is to try to accommodate even total strangers.
“However, information will slowly surface that these strangers are people who were banished by the government enforcement authorities from their hometowns or home states due to criminal records or suspected criminal activities,” he said.
Wing was reacting to the uproar over the transfer of nine peninsula cops being probed for extortion in Selangor to Sarawak and Sabah.
“Sarawak is being used not just as dumping grounds for problematic civil servants, but also for bad hats.
“This has been happening quietly and secretly for years,” said Wing who is a much-travelled native rights fighter.
On Wednesday, Sarawak PKR had called on the state government leaders not to remain silent and sheepishly allow errant civil servants from Malaya to be simply transferred to the state.
State PKR vice-chairman Roland Engan asked whether the state governments have an unwritten understanding with police on transferring its bad apples to both Sabah and Sarawak.
Why is there no protest from the state leaders? Why did they not stop such transfers?
“We in Sarawak welcome everyone but in cases such as this, we are worried that problematic civil servants being transferred here will spread their problems.
“The people of Sarawak have the right to get good civil servant services, not problematic ones,” he said.
Sarawak DAP MP for Bandar Kuching Kelvin Yii also voiced similar views.
He said there is a bigger question on the frequency of such relocations, and whether over the years this has been common practice to merely transfer “problematic” and even non-performing civil servants to these two regions.
“At the end of the day, maybe there is a need to reform and put in place a proper mechanism to address unscrupulous and non-performing civil servants rather than merely transferring them here and there and passing the problem to either another state or even department,” he said.
Meanwhile, police inspector-general Tan Sri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said yesterday that the transfer of nine problematic police officers from the peninsula to East Malaysia is now being reviewed following the outcry from politicians and civil society leaders.
He also clarified that the move only involves Sarawak and not Sabah. – The Vibes, August 5, 2022
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