Fatimah: Sarawak One Stop Committee committed in fight against drug abuse

SIBU (June 19): The Sarawak One Stop Committee (OSC-MIDS) to address substance abuse will never give up in the fight against drug addiction despite the increasing number of cases this year, said Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.

In its serious effort to clamp down on this menace, the Minister of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development said Sarawak has its own framework that involves various agencies in addressing the supply and demand of drugs as well as focusing on rehabilitation and intervention programmes.

According to her, OSC-MIDS comprises various agencies such as the police, National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK), Malaysia Drugs Prevention Association (Pemadam), Customs Departments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“We work collaboratively, helping each other to address this issue because it is a very complex issue and cannot be dealt with from one perspective only.

“I think we are the only state that is using this strategy to address the drug issue whereby we get all the agencies together – form a partnership, collaborate with each other, and share information so that more success can be achieved,” she said when officiating at the Sibu Free from Drugs Action Plan Workshop here today.

Pointing out that drug substance issue is Sarawak’s number one enemy, Fatimah, who is also state chairperson of OSC-MIDS, said OSC-MIDS aimed at cutting the supply chain and demand for drugs.

As drugs are one of the causes of other social issues, she said OSC-MIDS also focuses on rehabilitation and intervention programmes for drug addicts.

“We have to recognise not only all the good works done by the government agencies, but the NGOs are also doing their best to rehabilitate these drug addicts,” she pointed out, adding it is equally important to have community engagement in the fight against drugs.

“We at the ministry will also share the good work that is done by these agencies to ensure that we can tackle this issue.

“We might not be able to achieve zero drug issues, but we must ensure that the cases will be reduced. When the police make arrests and seizures, they are saving a part of our people from getting the drugs.

“We cannot let these people easily obtain drugs,” she said.

According to her, last year, the police made 11,470 arrests related to drugs and out of that, 1,280 arrests were made in Sibu, with 606 arrests in the first five months of this year.

She said OSC-MIDS is not only set up at the divisional level, as the Penghulu are appointed to chair OSC-MIDS for the area under their care.

“So we have a very high level of OSC-MIDS and we also go all the way down to the community. So, this is the framework that we are using,” she said.

On the workshop, Fatimah said it is aimed at coming up with plans to make Sibu free from drugs.

“It is not going to be easy because drugs are a big business, but we must persevere. With your experiences, we can come up with good plans to make Sibu free from any drug activities,” she said.

Also present at the event were Sibu Resident Abang Mohamad Porkan Abang Budiman and Sibu district officer Khalid Andong, who is also chairman of OSC-MIDS Sibu.