Esscom director general Mohammad Mentek said Kampung Mangkalinau recorded the highest number of non-citizen
households at 70%.

SANDAKAN:
A census by the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) at four water
villages in Sandakan found they had a total of 4,928 houses with 24,931
occupants.
Director-General Mohammad Mentek said 58% of the houses or 2,847
houses were occupied by non-citizens while the remaining 42% or 2,081
were Malaysian households.
He said Kampung Mangkalinau recorded the highest number of non-citizen households at 70%.
The number of houses occupied by non-citizens was also high in the
water village of Kampung Forest (including Good View) at 55% (653
houses) whereas 536 houses (45%) belonged to locals.
“However, houses occupied by locals in Kampung Muhibbah and Cahaya
Baru surpassed non-citizens,” he told reporters after chairing the
post-mortem on the census here yesterday.
Mohammad said the census went smoothly and found 244 houses were vacant.
“We are going to carry out a “Mopping-Up” exercise and will ask
Statistic Department officals to return to the water villages to carry
out a further census on the vacant houses,” he said.
He did not rule out the possibility of the vacant houses
being occupied by illegal immigrants who fled during the census
exercise.
He said no arrests were made during the census operation.
Mohammad also denied Esscom had demolished several houses in the affected water villages during the census operation.
“Not even a single house was demolished. Such an allegation is unfounded,” he said.
Mohammad said the census operation had received close cooperation from villagers and community leaders.
He said one of the main challenges of the operation was the
unpredicatable weather and poor infrastructure including narrow bridges
or narrow jetties.
Mohammad said a total of 171 of enumerators and 258 officials from
state and federal government departments and agencies including security
teams were involved in the operation.
Mohammad said the outcome of the operation will be thoroughly
scrutinised prior to submission to the government for further action,
including determining whether the affected villagers need to be
relocated or otherwise.
Mohammad said Sandakan was one of the three districts in the Eastern
Sabah Security Zone (Esszone), besides Semporna and Lahad Datu, selected
for the pioneer census programme.
Esszone covers 10 districts, the other seven being Kudat, Kota
Marudu, Pitas, Beluran, Kinabatangan, Kunak and Tawau. It was
established following the violent intrusion by armed Sulu terrorists in
Kampung Tanduo, Lahad Datu, in February last year.
-Bernama