Here we go again.
Sabah seems to have become a “nudists haven” as another 2 stripping incidents were reported to have taken place at Semporna and Sibuan Island. These incidents came after an earlier incident involving 10 tourists who pose naked and urinated at the 8km mark of the 2-day trek up Mount Kinabalu in May.
According to The Star Online, several photos of at least 7 far eastern tourists posing nude on one of the islands off Sabah’s diving haven of Semporna have gone viral.
When contacted by The Star Online on Thursday, Semporna district officer Dr. Chacho Bulah revealed that he has already asked Sabah Parks and the police to investigate the incident.
“I was informed of this matter by one of the tourism association members, who said that he saw the pictures in Facebook,” said Dr. Chacho. He added that “it’s just a claim for now”, as they cannot identify whether the incident happened in one of the Sabah islands.
According to Dr. Chaco, after he was informed about the incident on 19th October (Monday), a letter was written to the relevant authorities to urge them to investigate the matter.
He said:
We do not take such matters lightly and do not want to see such things occurring in Sabah.
Meanwhile, the police have confirmed to The Star Online that another act of stripping by tourists has taken place in an island near Semporna.
This time around, the incident involved Chinese tourists.
Semporna police chief Supt Peter Umbuas told the newspaper that the stripping incident could have occurred sometime between 2 weeks ago or even 2 years ago.
None of the tourists could be located as they have returned to China. Supt Peter said they’d “seek help of Interpol to identify the people in the photograph”. He added they will also ask the Immigration Department to “check when they entered Sabah”.
This is the 3rd time a stripping incident has been reported in Sabah.
Earlier in May, photos of tourists posing nude at the peak of Mt Kinabalu caused quite an uproar among locals, especially the natives who believed that it was a disrespectful act. 4 of the identified nudists were charged in court and sentenced to 3 days in jail before ordered to leave Sabah immediately. .
Regarding these stripping cases, Supt Peter urged tour and resort operators to inform tourists on laws against stripping and to be culturally sensitive to the local communities.
