Crackdown vs Filipinos feared, as Razak looks for scapegoats

His hidden wealth and abuses exposed, the Malaysian PM is trying to divert attention onto imagined security threats.

President Noynoy Aquino is committing the Philippines in today’s Paris talks on climate change a hefty 70-percent cut in carbon emissions by 2030. That is in exchange for foreign grants “for vulnerable countries.”

Earth activists ask why P-Noy is doing that when the country’s contribution to greenhouse gases is miniscule, compared to others. It’s a mere one-third of one percent of global GHGs.

Political analysts know the real score. And it’s spelled DAP, because akin to the presidential pork barrel Disbursement Acceleration Program. Either the 70-percent promised cut would cripple the economy, or is meant to be broken. But the foreign aid would be disbursed to all sorts of NGOs – fronts of administration politicos – through Executive agencies.

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The Anti-Criminality O-Plan Lambat Sibat should be strictest in Western Samar, as Interior Sec. Mel Senen Sarmiento is from its Calbayog City. But there must have been some confusion. Chief Insp. Jovie Espinido was removed from Samar Island to Mindanao, despite awarding in 2012 as PNP Junior Officer of the Year for dismantling two politicians’ private armies. Not only did he confiscate 70 loose firearms but also nabbed the unlicensed owners. Then came the relief of provincial head Sr. Supt. Elmer Pelobello last weekend. This was three days after his “one time-big time” raid of eight criminal hideouts, that netted four narco-traffickers and killed a fifth, and captured four most wanted criminals in two cities.

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Expect Malaysia again to crack down on Filipinos in Sabah. This will follow the authoritarian neighbor’s supposed “sighting” of a “second invasion” of the disputed territory by Sulu islanders in the Philippines.

Announced by Malaysia’s Homeland ministry last weekend, the purported plot surprised Philippine security counterparts. Kuala Lumpur had not conferred with Manila, as is usual – and expected – in cross-border troubles, for joint patrol of shared waters.

That Malaysia unilaterally raised an alert against Sabah Filipinos is thus seen as political, aimed actually against the local opposition. Rocked by charges of high corruption and atrocities, Prime Minister Najib Razak has been trying to divert attention onto imagined security threats.

Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed told the controlled Malaysian press about “Sulu militants planning revenge attacks.” Unashamedly sketchy, he said his agency was working “to neutralize a local network of sympathizers.” The uncritical newspapers did not press for details of purported “assimilation into local communities.”

Concerned Filipino groups in Sabah are bracing for a repeat of 2013’s indiscriminate arrests, jailing, and deportation. Those clampdowns resulted from skirmishes in Sabah of Malaysian troops with followers of the Sultanate of Sulu.

About 300 Sulu folk then, mostly poor and illiterate bodyguards, had joined an expedition to Sabah’s Lahad Datu district of a brother of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III. They were to receive land that reportedly would be given to the Sultanate.

Lugging two rifles and some handguns, and accompanied by wives, they were met with cannons and missiles by Malaysian troops “repelling an invasion.” Two hundred-forty six “terrorists” were killed in strafing by Malaysian fighter jets of their seashore encampment. Razak’s government claimed that “scores of security troops” also perished, but to this day has given no exact headcount.

It was an election year in Malaysia. Razak was then on the brink of losing parliament majority, like in 2008 when opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim routed his long repressive rule but was pushed back by gerrymandering. Philippine President Noynoy Aquino only feebly decried the Sabah oppressions.

Of late Razak was exposed of receiving $760 million in his personal bank account. A UN body also has condemned his maltreating the aging, sickly Anwar in a filthy prison, on false sentencing for sodomy even after the accuser recanted. Razak has not denied the huge deposit, saying only that he personally did not benefit from it. Malaysian papers have hinted that half the sum, mysteriously withdrawn, went to Philippine officials pushing for a Bangsamoro sub-state under Mindanao separatists.

Mid-Nov. Anwar’s MP-daughter Nurul Izzah went to Manila to gather support for his brief liberty for spine surgery. The next week Razak at the APEC summit in Manila threw a tantrum, first prematurely reacting to Sulu Islamist extremists’ claims of beheading a Malaysian hostage, then snapping at the Philippine military that cautioned against jumping from the terrorists’ unconfirmed words. That revived Razak’s earlier exhortation for UMNO party mates “to be as brave as ISIS fighters” in the face of domestic and global rebukes.

On return to Kuala Lumpur, MP Izzah was met by accusation by a Razak ally of treason, in meeting with “the terrorist Jacel Kiram,” daughter of now deceased Jamalul III. Allegedly they discussed Sabah. In truth, it was an open signing for Anwar’s medical furlough by Manila politicians, both administration and opposition, and moderate Muslims, covered by the press. Jacel is a senatorial candidate.

To the “treason by Facebook posting,” Manila leaders in turn are demanding the expulsion of Malaysian generals who dominate the ceasefire between Philippine troops and Moro rebels. The generals openly meet with the very massacrers of 44 police commandos in a raid on two Malaysian terrorists’ hideout in Mindanao last Jan.

Izzah and fellow-Manila visitor MP Tian Chua are being banned from Sabah. The report on it was contained in the same one about the supposed “revenge attacks,” fuelling suspicions of political repression at the expense of Filipinos working in Sabah.

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