How the Royal Malaysian Navy plans to combat trans-border maritime threats in the Sabah region

In the context of rising piracy incidents in Southeast Asia – it’s the world’s “new hub” for piracy according to a United Nations report – and continued territorial disputes between China and its neighbours, Defence IQ wanted to understand more about the key threats Malaysia was facing in terms of its maritime security. What are they?

“Trans-border activity such as illegal immigrants, the smuggling of goods, humans and weapons, trafficking of contrabands, criminal activities such as kidnapping for ransom, terrorist, sea robberies, and illegal fishing activity due to existing maritime border disputes,” according to Captain Mohd Fadzli Kamal Bin Mohd Mohaldin.
Captain Fadzli is the Chief of Staff, Naval Region 2 for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) and he recently sat down with Defence IQ to discuss the contemporary regional threats Malaysia is facing in its maritime domain.
Trans-border criminal activities are the most challenging of these threats due to “unfavourable geographical features” and the nation’s limited asset availability and capability to combat the maritime threat, Fadzli said.
He suggested that pursuing coordinated national and bi-lateral maritime patrol arrangements between coastal states would be central to overcoming some of these challenges in the future.
“Definitely, [regional cooperation and inter-agency collaboration] is very important,” said Fadzli.
“RMN has either annual or bi-annual bi-lateral and multi-lateral exercises with all neighbouring country navies. Occasionally, the RMN participates in exercises or training conducted by other maritime enforcement agencies, locally and abroad.
“There are a number of organisations established within Southeast Asia to combat illegal maritime activity such as the International Fusion Centre (IFC) and the South East Asia Centre for Countering Terrorist (SEACAT), which is based in Singapore and the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) office in Kuala Lumpur.”
Malaysia is also planning to establish a Coast Guard in order to achieve better enforcement to complement the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM), which will consolidate and synchronise all efforts within the maritime domain of the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone).
Furthermore, Fadzli said that the Navy would be procuring a “coastal radar network” and “more suitable crafts to operate within the unfavourable geographical surrounding.”
The ESSZone is a secure region in the Malaysian state of Sabah that was established last year following the Lahad Datu standoff where 235 militants sailed into Lahad Datu, Sabah from islands in the Southern Philippines. One of the biggest challenges for the RMN is achieving maritime domain awareness in the Sabah region. Defence IQ asked how the Navy would approach this challenge.
“[First of all we will ensure] close cooperation between existing maritime enforcement agencies, the Armed Forces and other government organisations with regard to information and intelligent sharing, synchronisation of efforts, sharing of common facilities and exchange of personnel between agencies,” said Fadzli.
In addition to conducting maritime security surveys, the RMN will look to better engage with the maritime community such as local fishery associations, resort operators, merchant shipping and peoples living on off-lying islands.
There has been a great deal of reportage about a growing number of piracy incidents in the region recently but Captain Fadzli indicated that it depends which region we’re talking about. The Asia-Pacific region covers an enormous body of water, some of which has robust maritime defences and good surveillance coverage, some doesn’t. While piracy is on the rise in some quarters of Asian waters, Fadzli insists that, “generally, piracy attacks in Asia have been decreasing greatly.”
“There has not been any piracy incident in the Straits of Malacca for the past few years due to the continuous patrolling by enforcement agencies of the coastal states through the Malacca Straits Sea Patrol (MSSP) and Eyes-in-the Skies (EIS) initiatives,” said Fadzli.
“However, trans-border illegal activities [such as piracy] continue to take place especially in the Southeast Asia region due to close proximity of coastal states.
“Moreover, kidnapping for ransom especially by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group in Southern Philippines has become the focal point.”
Piracy remains a regional security threat, but it is only one of a number of challenges within the wider maritime domain according to Fadzli.



 Captain Fadzli will be presenting at the forthcoming Coastal Surveillance conference in Singapore where he said he will be “sharing my knowledge and experience working on maritime issues…the challenges that we faced [along with] the initiatives currently in place and perhaps some [of our] future plans, especially along the Eastern coast of Sabah.” To find out more, follow the link below for further details on Captain Fadzli’s presentation and other speakers on the agenda.

Contributor:  Defence IQ Press