End debate over S$4m hostage release fund, deputy minister tells public

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nur Jazlan Mohamed has urged the public and families of the four freed Sarawakian sailors to stop shining the spotlight on the RM12 million (S$4 million) raised for their release.

Mr Nur Jazlan said what was most important was the safety of the four men and that they were now back home with their families. He cautioned against further discussion about the money, saying this could invite more kidnappings.

“Do not encourage further kidnappings,” he told Malay Mail Online on Monday. “When you reveal that such a sum can be raised, about RM3 million for each hostage, then you are encouraging them to go and kidnap again. Stop setting bad examples for future negotiations, if there are any. It will make it worse.”

The minister was referring to the notorious Abu Sayyaf group, the terror network in the southern Philippines said to be responsible. The militants have earned millions of dollars from kidnapping foreigners and locals in the region since the early 1990s.

A question mark hangs over the passage of the RM12 million raised to secure the release of the four sailors.

According to an uncle of one of the hostages, the money was raised by the families to ransom the men and was banked in to the police on May 24.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the police’s Special Branch unit received the funds from the families, and that the sum was then given to certain Philippine agencies, although he refused to name the organisations. He also insisted that the money had not been used to ransom the four as the government does not recognise kidnap-for-ransom activities.

Contradicting the Deputy Prime Minister, Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the police had nothing to do with the money. He said it was handed directly to an unknown “third party” who helped to negotiate their release and that the police Special Branch did not receive the funds.

Yesterday, the Manila Times reported two “highly placed sources” in the Philippines government as saying that the militants were angry that they had only received 100 million pesos (RM8.8 million, S$2.9 million) instead of the 130 million pesos that was raised.

Brothers Wong Teck Kang, 31, and Teck Chii, 29, their 21-year-old cousin Johnny Lau Jung Hien and an unrelated friend, Wong Hung Sing, 34, were kidnapped from a commercial barge, MV Massive 6, in the waters off Pulau Ligitan on April 1 while returning to Tawau, Sabah, after delivering a cargo of wood to Manila. The Abu Sayyaf gunmen released them on June 8.

The Plan of Action for Malaysia, a coalition of local rights groups, yesterday called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry over the string of kidnappings in Sabah and Sarawak. The group said that the kidnappings, which took place after the Eastern Sabah Security Zone was set up in 2013, indicated weaknesses in border defence and hostage crisis management. AGENCIES