PEOPLE’S Volunteer Corps (Rela) personnel are not trained nor equipped to ensure security in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone), which must be manned by the military, said Mohd Shafie Apdal.

The Semporna MP today questioned why military personnel from the state’s east coast could not be deployed to ESSZone, saying the federal government must understand the security situation there, where a dusk-till-dawn curfew was in place due to the threat of armed militants from southern Philippines.

“When Rela personnel in Semporna ask for my opinion, as they are my relatives, and the fact that I am the MP, I have to look after their lives, welfare and security.

“How can (the government) deploy them (Rela personnel) when we have many armed forces personnel at the Paradise Camp in Kota Belud and Lok Kawi base camp, who are badly needed in places like Semporna?

“These people (army personnel) are trained to use all sorts of equipment, while Rela, no,” he told reporters during his Chinese New Year walkabout in Luyang, Kota Kinabalu, this morning.

He said the Rela Act was clear on the roles of personnel, whose duties included directing traffic and carrying out community work.

He said this made it not right for them to be sent to islands in ESSZone, armed only with wooden batons and their uniforms, where there was a probability that they would need to engage in combat with gunmen from across the border.

“They are being paid RM9 an hour, with a maximum of eight (working) hours. They do not have a salary or pension, and if anything untoward happens to them, it is my duty, as the MP, and as a relative, to look after their welfare.”

On Friday, Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, referring to Shafie, said “politicians should not interfere in military matters”.

He also questioned Shafie’s intention in raising the matter now, instead of when the former minister was still in the cabinet.

“They (Rela personnel) were not deployed then. But now, they are being deployed,” said Shafie.

“This is why I have started to question the matter… They (Hishammuddin) did not experience what I went through at the front line in Semporna during the 2013 Tanduo incursion.

“What if my constituents become victims of the intruders? If you (Hishammuddin) were the MP of the area, would you keep quiet when your people are being sent to the front line? I think not.” – February 10, 2018.