Sulu unrest leaves villagers insecure
Traders here in Simunul village used to stay open till late, selling their catches from the sea, smoked meats and fruit, chatting away in their dusty wooden stalls by the roadside near Semporna town.
These days, the bustle dies down early, and by 9:30pm, people lock their doors.
Since an armed invasion two months ago by Sulu militants left 10 policemen and soldiers dead as well as displaced thousands from their village, the sense of security always taken for granted has been badly shaken.
“It’s safe enough, but some are still cautious,” Ismail Saraman, the deputy chief of Simunul Village, said between checking voter registration details and campaigning in his village for Barisan Nasional (BN).
While normalcy has yet to return, Simunul village, like most on Sabah’s east coast, remains very much a BN stronghold.
For one thing, villagers think the government handled the invasion well. For another, there is no viable opposition.
“A feudalistic mentality still runs deep there, with the village headmen taking care of the population,” said Oh Ei Sun, a political analyst with Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
“The opposition has insufficient resources to make inroads.”
Sabah-born Suluk Arfah Mohd Amin, 29, a power plant technician, said he had not even thought of voting for any other party but Barisan Nasional.
“We know the federal BN government can bring development but the opposition Pakatan (Rakyat) seems very quiet,” he said.
The 10-week Sulu stand-off, which left two villages completely decimated, is still fresh in the minds of many of the villagers.
The walkway into the blood-splattered scene in Simunul has been demolished to prevent children from playing there.
Hundreds of illegal residents of Filipino background have not returned to their Simunul homes for fear that they will be picked up by the authorities.
On March 7, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the Eastern Sabah Security Zone to try to plug the state’s porous border with the Philippines.
Villagers in Simunul and other east coast communities are now worried that they will be forced to move inland as part of that plan.
Many are fishermen, who make a living from the sea, and will do anything to preserve their livelihood.
If the government lets them stay put, said Ismail, “then it’s a confirmed BN win” said one of the local villagers.
