Safeguarding Malaysia’s national security: The Sabah’s Lahad Datu incident

National election is one of the criteria for a democratic country and Malaysia has adopted democracy since her political independence in 1957. Like many newly developing countries, Malaysia’s road to democracy was filled with national security challenges as witnessed the bloody post-election May 13, 1969 riot and the pre 13th National Election invasion of Lahad Datu, Sabah by a group of armed gun men on 9th February 2013 wherein nine members of Malaysian authorities and six civilians died. This study analysed in what way the Lahad Datu incident impacted Malaysia’s national security. It was argued that Sabah’s geostrategic and geophysical locations, insufficient defence forces, self-proclaimed Sultan Sulu, Jamalul Kiram III a Suluk ethnicity, were among the contributing factors to the Lahad Datu incident. Consequently, Malaysia had established Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) to protect the country’s eastern frontier. Similarly, Sabah’s unsettled domestic issues such as illegal immigrants, maritime threats and overlapping territorial claims continued to indicate that Sabah was becoming an important state that needed to be given a much greater attention.