Kota Kinabalu: The Gabungan Rakyat Sabah-led State Government is looking into reviving the Sabah Border Scouts as part of additional security measures that will benefit the people and investors.
Although the State’s security situation has greatly improved especially at sea, following the setting up of Esscom during the tenure of predecessor Tan Sri Musa Aman, many other activities still continue overland such as cross-border smuggling of subsidised essential goods, among others. Datuk Seri Hajiji Haji Noor said under such proposal the Border Scouts would have to be treated as State officers and paid by the State Government.
He believed such proposal is in Sabah’s best interests. If approved, they would be treated as State officers but must have background and working experience in the security field and would be trained by the Federal Government.He said several of these trained scouts would be placed to guard various State’s borders, parts of which are often used as rat trails by smugglers and human traffickers.
The unit consisted of about 1,500 men under the command of Richard Noone and officers from the Semoi Praaq, the Orang Asli tracker unit of the Royal Malaysia Police. However, the Border Scout unit was disbanded in 1986 on grounds that there was no longer any external threat to Sabah.