Police and soldiers have detained thousands of people in eastern Malaysia and bulldozed hundreds of squatter homes in a crackdown against illegal immigrants and armed militants seeking refuge. Officials said that 2,548 illegals from Indonesia and the Philippines were rounded up in raids Tuesday across Sabah state on Borneo island. They will be deported and face a mandatory whipping if they return to Malaysia. A total of 615 homes were demolished. Nearly 4,000 officials are screening an estimated 600,000 immigrants from the neighboring Philippines and Indonesia, many of them without valid papers.
Malaysia's come around a lot since 9-11. They're getting a little taste of prosperity as a result of g... g... (Dare I say it?) globalization, and they don't want to see it go bye-bye because of a bunch of turban-wearing loons. As incomes go up, patience with the silliness will go down. Laffer or somebody could probably plot it on a curve. |