Kitingan, who is Keningau MP, said the border scouts can help security agencies in terms of gathering intelligence and will subsequently contribute towards fortifying the borders in the state.
“Yes, I think they (federal government) should (revive the border scouts) because this will complement the security forces,” he told reporters after an event in Putatan near here today.
“We cannot treat this news as mere rumours as this has happened before and can take place again.”
He was referring to the incident in February 2013, when more than 200 armed militants from Sulu set out from Jolo in the southern Philippines and landed on Sabah’s east coast Lahad Datu district to reclaim the land which they claimed still belonged to the Sulu Sultan.
The standoff between the militants and the Malaysian armed forces lasted 42 days, with 56 members of the invading party being killed, aside from six civilians and 10 Malaysian security force personnel. Other militants were either caught or escaped to Southern Philippines.
Kitingan had previously made the call to revive the border scouts in 2019, urging the home ministry to form the unit to tackle the influx of undocumented migrants.
The Sabah border scouts were established in 1963, using mostly indigenous Sabahans. It was a para-military unit trained by the British to repel the incursion of the Indonesian army during the confrontation and the communist insurgency at the time.
The scouts were based in Keningau and their main task was to gather intelligence, mark enemy locations and open up helicopter landing sites deep in the Sabah border rainforest.
They proved a success, especially as they had good knowledge of the jungle’s porous terrain. The unit was disbanded in 1986.
Kitingan said he would suggest to home minister Hamzah Zainudin to consider the revival of this unit.
He had also earlier texted Hamzah to inquire about the invasion claims. He added the latter replied: “Don’t worry, we are ready for any possibility.”
The South China Morning Post, quoting a senior regional security source, had reported yesterday that there was a secret meeting among 19 mayors of the Sulu archipelago to discuss plans to invade Sabah.
This meeting, said to have taken place on Dec 1 and conducted by “a locally elected official in Sulu province”, supposedly involved talks over recruiting up to 600 men to establish a “Royal Sulu Army”.
Sabah police chief Idris Abdullah subsequently rubbished the report, but said they were not taking anything for granted.
Later, Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said the police were ready to face any possible threat and they took the news report seriously.
Meanwhile, Kitingan received 1,015 membership application forms from individuals intending to join Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR). Kitingan is the president of the party.
The group was led by Marcus Mojigoh, the former Putatan MP, who served for three straight terms under the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
Mojigoh, 69, quit Upko early last year and later linked up with Parti Cinta Sabah.
He said he was already content being away from politics but was later forced to return due to “pressure from the grassroots”.
“I am old and tired of politics, but they keep telling me to join STAR. They accused me of not being responsible to the Putatan people.
“So that hurt me and I agreed (to join STAR) but my condition was I will only join the party if 1,000 people also agree to be with me.”
The 1,015 people are from the Tanjung Aru, Petagas and Tanjung Keramat state constituencies, which are under the Putatan parliamentary seat.
Kitingan said the party was always happy if someone with influence could bring more members to join STAR, adding this will further strengthen the party.
He added that STAR had some 400,000 members in 61 divisions statewide presently.