LETTER | Outsiders must respect the local communities they visit

LETTER | I wish to offer my two cents regarding reports with headings such as “Teacher alleges death threat by tour guides in police report”; “Semporna man lodges report against tour guides over death threats”; and “Tour guide held over alleged death threat to islander in Semporna”.

Jefry Musa is a 28-year-old volunteer teacher from Iskul Sama Di Laut Omadal, a community-run school for stateless children in Omadal Island, east of Bum Bum Island off Semporna, Sabah.

It takes about an hour to travel by speedboat from Semporna to Omadal.

While about 30,000 people live on the 45 square kilometres Bum Bum Island, which is traversed by a network of roads, there are none in tiny Omadal Island, with half of its population in this remote island living in stilt houses above the sea, and visitors are few and far in between.

In an Instagram post, Jefry said he lodged a report against guides from two companies, namely Epic Fun and Ocean Park Tour & Travel.

Jefry has alleged that the guides ignored his requests for them to stop their guests from taking unconsented nude pictures of Bajau Laut children in Omadal.

This happened on June 15 after he tried to call out stubborn tourists who continued to take pictures of unclothed children, believed to be from the Bajau Laut community, without permission, when they were visiting Omadal Island.

In his post, Jefry said: “Even though we have discussed (the matter with the tourists’ drivers), we found that they were still stubborn and brought tourists in to do the same thing later.

“So, I thought that the discussions did not mean anything, and we must enforce the law.”

Therefore, he started recording videos of visitors who were taking photos of nude children, but this infuriated the guides, and an argument broke out in front of the private school until the village chief and Civil Defence Force personnel ended their verbal fights.

‘Death threats’

In his report lodged at the Semporna district police station, Jefry stated: “During the altercation, I was warned that I would be harmed if I show up in Pekan, Semporna. I was informed by villagers that there were death threats made against me by the guides.”

At this juncture, I wish to clarify why I did not regurgitate the terms “tour guides” and “tourist drivers” that had been wrongly used in the reports, as I only referred to them as guides.

In Malaysia, tour guides are officially classified as tourist guides and they must be licensed by the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry.

They are mainly used to provide airport transfers and sightseeing tours normally using a tour bus for a group of tourists.

If visitors were charged guiding fees, then the guides must be licensed.

If not, persons providing services as tourist guides shall be guilty of an offence and be liable to a fine not exceeding RM7,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both.

If the guides to Omadal Island were indeed licensed tourist guides, they would have been trained and acted professionally by respecting the community there, and not treating children as interesting specimens for their own delight and disregarding local inhabitants.

Were they licensed?

Also, the guides cannot be described as tourist drivers as there are no vehicles and roads for them to drive on Omadal Island, and the trip from Semporna was by boat.

However, they could be tourist drivers on the much bigger Bum Bum Island.

If tour vehicles are operating on Bum Bum Island, then the authorities need to check whether they are licensed for commercial use.

Were they granted taxi or e-hailing licences by the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board, or “Hire and Drive” or “Van Persiaran” licences by the ministry?

Tourism on Bum Bum Island ought to be promoted, as tourist expenditures for shopping and purchasing local produce, accommodation, food, and beverage can boost the local economy.

But not for tiny and sparsely populated Omadal Island if visitors go there just to prey on innocent children by ogling and taking photos of them naked and bringing no benefit but harm to the local community.

These are not tourism activities and ought to be banned as they are nothing short of intrusion and exploitation of the local people that are enjoying their carefree life in their own little paradise they call home.

YS Chan is a master trainer for Mesra Malaysia and Travel and Tours Enhancement Course and an Asean Tourism Master Trainer. He is also a tourism and transport business consultant.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.