KOTA KINABALU: Newly-appointed Sabah Commissioner of Police Datuk Rashid Harun has vowed to further stabilise the platform that had been set by his predecessor Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman while trying his best to maintain his legacy.
One of the things that Rashid, who had previously served as Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCom) commander, will continue is the curfew imposed on the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone), albeit with some adjustments.
Although there were initial concerns regarding the implementation of the curfew, particularly among the fishermen who were worried about their source of income, it changed after discussions and when allowed to fish at a certain time, they responded positively, and a majority of them agreed for the curfew to continue to be imposed, said Rashid.
The curfew, he added, needed to remain as one of the tools to safeguard the safety and security not only of the ESSZone areas but also the state.
I was lucky because for as long as Datuk Jalaluddin was the Commissioner of Police, he had given strong support through our continuous discussions in overcoming the challenges of maintaining the security of East Sabah, commented Rashid of his predecessor.
Meanwhile, Jalaluddin shared that the biggest challenge he faced throughout his service as the State Commissioner of Police since being appointed on June 30, 2014, was the attack of a resort at Pulau Mabul on July 14 that year which killed a marine policeman while another was kidnapped.
For me, that was truly a huge challenge as it happened only two weeks after I was appointed to the position here. I stressed about it the whole night thinking that I must do something, and contacted Datuk Rashid, rushed to Pulau Mabul first thing in the morning. That was a truly memorable experience, he recalled.
Jalauddin had since then announced the dusk-to dawn curfew on the ESSZone areas and outlined a few Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), which included (requiring) all district police chiefs of the said area apply hands-on approaches in all aspects, especially those involving the public, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the community as a whole.
Throughout his duty as head of the state police, Jalaluddin also stressed on smuggling of syabu and oil which he said were related to cross-border criminal activities.
The handover-of-duty ceremony at the police headquarters yesterday was witnessed by Bukit Aman director of management, Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah, representing the Inspector-General of Police.
Jalaluddin will replace Datuk Jamsah Mustapa as director of Integrity and Standard Compliance Department at Bukit Aman.