The proposal to ban barter trade between Sabah’s east coast communities and southern Philippines residents by the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has clearly shown that the police completely doesn’t understand economics.
Barter trading is a centuries-old practice that goes back to the time when “barter traders” directly exchanged goods for other goods or services without using currencies. They still call it barter even if it has transformed into commercial trading.
It is wrong to put the blame of the recent kidnapping in Sandakan on barter trade. It is the police and ESSCOM that failed to guard our border and safeguard the people’s security following the latest kidnapping.
The logic that banning barter trade is equivalent to curbing criminal activities does not hold water. As kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf groups became more rampant, we should be more vigilant and not lose our heads until we have a strange belief for instance in order to slow down road accidents, we must ban the use of private vehicles.
Barter trade between Sabah and our neighbouring Southern Philippines and East Kalimantan is a significant economic activity with a total trade value ranging from RM150 million to RM300 million per year.
In fact barter trade plays an important role in enhancing and sustaining the socio economic development and growth of the local economies of the region of BIMP-EAGA (Brunei – Indonesia – Malaysia – Philippines East Asean Growth Area), covering a land area of 1.54 million square kilometres and a populationn of some 70 million.
There are four ports managing the barter trade, namely Sandakan, Tawau, Kudat and Labuan. And, the number of barter traders issued with the Seaman International Card in 2012 was a significant 18,388 with vessels involved at 1,768.
Why does barter trade exist? It’s simply market force. Residents of Western Mindanao prefer to purchase goods in Sabah, where commodities are cheap. For Tawi-Tawi residents, it is also easier to sail to Sabah than to sail to Zamboanga City.
How can we go against the market force by banning foreign traders from entering the country? The only way is regulating them according to our law and regulations.
In fact, the Immigration Department has taken stricter action to control the movement of barter traders. In 2013, it abolished the issuance of the Seaman Identification Card (SIQ) to barter traders and made it compulsory for them to have an international passport or seaman book from their respective countries before they are allowed to land in Sabah and Labuan.
On top of this, the barter trade crewmen are only allowed to be at entry points in Sabah and Labuan for a maximum seven days with no possibility of extension. If anything goes wrong after stricter control on the barter traders, it’s the fault of our own authorities.
Banning barter trade definitely is not curbing kidnappings or other criminal activities effectively. On the other hand it might cause opposite consequences.
Looking at the previous cross border abduction cases, it appeared that the main objective of the Abu Sayyaf, or any other southern Philippines’ armed groups, is basically money. For them, kidnapping-for-ransom is a lucrative business, thanks to ineffective security along our coastal line from the north to east coast.
As an independent researcher Mak Joon Nam has written in his paper “Pirates, Barter Traders, and Fishers: Whose Rights, Whose Security? User Conflicts and Maritime Nontraditional Security in Malaysian Waters” which was published in 2009, “ Trade is also seen as one way of helping to pacify the southern Philippines. As a Malaysian official observed, it is one way of ensuring that the cost of living there remains low and affordable.”
“If the cost of living goes up too much, the people of the southern Philippines will feel forced to migrate illegally to Malaysia. Worse, they might resort to their traditional occupation of piracy.”
Would banning barter trade ease or worsen the economy in the southern Philippines region itself? I think a prosperous southern Philippines would not only discourage such “hit-and-run kidnapping-for-ransom industry” but would also stem the exodus of illegal immigrants from that area to Sabah.