KOTA KINABALU: Illicit drugs that are found in Sabah are smuggled into the State.
However, most of those who were arrested for drug-related offences were not foreigners but locals, said Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad Ayid.
“Our investigation shows that while those arrested were locals, the drugs were not locally garnered. So the drugs are smuggled in through various means – through our airports, for instance. What is sad is that it is not the outsiders who are being penalized but the local folks. They are the ones jailed and ordered to hang,” she said at a press conference after attending the Drug Eradication Action Council meeting yesterday.
She said that because drugs were not local products and were gotten from other foreign countries, she considered it to be a new form of colonization of Sabah by foreign nations.
“This is a colonization of a foreign nation on us. Are we going to allow this colonization through drugs?” she questioned.
She is therefore urging all the relevant parties, from parents, to community watch and village heads right up to the agencies and relevant authorities to work together to address the menace of drugs.
“Everyone has a role to play and to be alert because this fight is for the future of our children and for us. We have to monitor our children and be observant of who is introduced into our community. We have to go back to those times when we know who our neighbours are, like before. Now, sadly, most of us don’t even know who are neighbours are. We need to watch out for each other,” she said.
At the same time, Jainab is also urging landlords not to rent out their houses to people that may be dealing with drugs.
She also mentioned that people were probably lured into dealing with drugs because of the promise of a quick lucrative income.
“It is a lucrative business. We are dealing with syndicates that involve billions of ringgit. We may manage to confiscate a mere RM23 million worth of drugs, but those involved are not the main people behind it,” she said.
She added that they were changing their approach in the war against the drug menace through prevention.
“We need to be proactive and not defensive. We are under attack so we need to make everyone aware that drugs is killing us and ruining our future generation,” she stressed.
Jainab said that there were 35 black spots identified in Sabah and these areas are located here, in Sandakan, Kunak, Tawau, Lahad Datu, Semporna and Papar.
“These places are not merely the centre for drug trafficking and abuse, but also the centre and starting point of other social ills, including promiscuity, fights, family breakdown, divorces and so on.