Tanjung Batu Firefights

Ground and air search. Image credit: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/3/8/nation/12809340&sec=

Malaysian security forces scored a major success on Wednesday night when they were engaged in firefights in Tanjung Batu. The IGP proudly said: “We received reports from the ground commander confirming that 31 enemies have been shot and believed killed”.

("Believed killed" is different from "killed". Just me saying only).

Another intruder was killed on Thursday morning in Kampung Tanduo, bringing the total to 32 Sulu casualties in the last two days, not counting today.

Naturally, the Filipinos produced a different figure. According to the Sulu sultan's spokesperson Abraham Idjirani, he had told Reuters news agency (Webpage

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/06/us-malaysia-philippines-idUSBRE9250TO20130306) they suffered ten dead, ten captured and four wounded.

Meanwhile, The Borneo Insider had reported that relatives of the Sulu Sultan’s family were said to be among dozens of people who have been hauled up by the police over the last two weeks on suspicion that they are sympathisers of the so called Sulu Royal Army. Among those hauled up for questioning and interrogation was the son of Raja Muda Abjimuddin Kiram, the leader of the Sulu band who held security forces to a three-week stand-off at Kampong Tanduo, before fleeing to safer ground. Others include the information chief of a local political party as well as uniformed personnel – though earlier the IGP had denied that security people had been detained for allegedly providing the “other side” with classified information.

To date, the IGP said a total of 52 enemies had been killed in Lahad Datu and Semporna since the beginning of the crisis.

And there was another revelation. The armed forces chief said the Tuesday air strike was never intended to kill, but merely to neutralize the target so that his men could come in without any casualties. 

I am so touched by his concern for his soldiers. Are they trained professional soldiers or are they National Service conscripts? 

And what did he mean by “to neutralize”? Shouldn't it mean to annihilate the threat posed by the gunmen? Or maybe, he meant to say “to scare away” – and if this was the case, then he succeeded. The fighters fled to neighboring Tanjung Batu and there, our soldiers were waiting for them. As I said earlier, thirty-one Filipinos paid with their lives.

Furthermore, it was decided to send five more battalions and additional police to Sabah to beef up security. It is like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. 

Methinks, Prime Minister Najib Razak is flexing his muscles because he wants to show off. It is more about fanning his personal popularity. About showmanship. It's a sandiwara.