TAN SRI Lee Lam Thye
SIBU: Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) is calling for a tightening of security along the 1,500km-long Sarawak-Indonesian border.
Its vice chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said yesterday the long border, which is very porous with ‘Jalan Tikus’ (illegal routes), served as an opportunity for criminals to smuggle drugs or dangerous weapons into the country.
Lee said the issue must be looked at with “utmost urgency”, especially in view of the recent increase in the number of serious crimes in the country.
“It is all the more important that preventive actions be taken in terms of enforcement to tighten up security along the borders, including the ‘Jalan Tikus’,” he told thesundaypost.
“All law enforcement agencies should work together under the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS). This means the
various government agencies from different ministries could work together to beef up patrolling and also tighten the ‘Jalan Tikus’.
Lee, however, said he was aware that patrolling the long border was difficult.
“But in the interest of the country’s security, all agencies involved need to identify the likely spots and concentrate on these areas to shut out would-be criminals.”
He cautioned criminals were always trying out new smuggling methods.
Meanwhile, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said among the security measures being considered was a proposal to equip all eight Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) checkpoints with state-of-art scanning machines.
He explained that with better scanning machines, all cargo would be scanned in quick time.