TUARAN: The Umno Tuaran division has proposed that the Internal Security Act (ISA) be re-introduced to counter any subversion and incitement against the country.
Its chief Datuk Hajiji Noor said the Act was necessary in light of various negative incidents and the alleged calls by certain quarters for Sabah and Sarawak to secede from Malaysia.
He said other countries including Singapore were still using the the Act.
“But of course, impose it on those who are evidently a threat to national security such as extremists and terrorists, and parties bent on disrupting racial harmony,” he said.
He was addressing party members at the divisional delegates’ meeting here yesterday, which was officiated by Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
Hajiji, who is also state Local Government and Housing Minister, said the division also hoped that the government would take stern action against individuals or groups that try to undermine and threaten national security.
Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri who is also an Umno Supreme Council member, said Umno is the only party that could unite the people of Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia.
He also said Umno is the pillar of strength for Sabah to lean on against any provocation to isolate the state from the federation.
He said the strength flowed from the ‘kindred spirit’ between Umno leaders in Sabah and the peninsula, aside from the party’s earnestness to help the people, particularly the Bumiputeras in Sabah.
“The people in the state must know that events in Sabah are also shared by the peninsula. When Sabah feels pain, the people in the peninsula feels the same,” he said. He cited security forces from the peninsula and Sarawak who had fought and defended Sabah against Filipino militants during the intrusion in Kampung Tanduo, Lahad Datu.
Ismail Sabri said the people of Sabah must have confidence in the government’s ability to keep the state’s sovereignty intact. — Bernama