Recently, the local media and the local and foreign internet community were abuzz with the news of an UFO (unidentified flying object) sighting at a serene beach resort near the city of Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

According to the press reports, the sightings of the round blue silent flying object in the sky were witnessed by many locals and tourists. Apparently some of the people who witnessed this UFO even claimed that their handphone ‘went dead’ mysteriously when they tried to record the moments of the UFO with their device.

Ufologists (researchers studying on UFOs) describe UFO as sightings of an object or light seen in the sky or land whose appearance, trajectory, actions, motions, lights and colors do not have a logical, conventional or natural explanation.

Sightings of UFOs in Malaysia have been reported by the local media on and off over many years. The first recorded sighting of an UFO apparently took place in 1950s in Malaysia. Subsequently there have been many reports emerging in the press around the Asian region. However all these sightings remain just as another newspaper report and I have not heard of the authorities making any attempt to investigate these sightings to validate the claims.

In the recent UFO sighting at the Tuaran Beach Resort in Sabah, the police according to press reports, did not undertake any investigations over the incident which created somewhat of a stir in the community. It was also reported in the press that police did not conduct any investigations on the UFO sighting as there were no police reports on the matter. Is a police report a necessity for an investigation of this nature?

In my opinion, we should not brush aside or scoff at UFO sightings of this nature. The authorities, especially those involved in the national security sector, should conduct an investigation on such credible sightings immediately. We should not leave reports of UFO sightings of such nature for granted or unattended .

Whatever it is the authorities should undertake an investigation to ascertain the validity of the report. A proper investigation should be carried out and situation should be explained to the public. Otherwise this will only create opportunities for the naive public and the media to speculate on the incident further.

The authorities have an obligation to explain to the public what was that the people witnessed hovering in the Sabah sky that day. We need to determine wether it was actually a UFO or IFO (Identified Flying Object). If we don't have UFO expertise locally we can always seek the assistance of renown ufologist in USA and Europe

According to overseas reports, 90% to 95% UFO sighting investigations were proven to be IFOs and not UFOs. Many a time it has been attributed to a natural phenomenon (unusual environmental conditions) or man-made objects. In some instances during certain times of the year due to atmospheric turbulence and unusual weather conditions, the stars near the horizon tend to twinkle rapidly in red and blue colours darting back and forth which people take as an UFO

Nevertheless, all UFO sightings should be investigated by the relevant authorities to distinguish between UFOs and IFOs. It must be pointed out that of late there have been reports of UFO sighting incidents around the world that have somewhat got national security authorities worried.

Prior to our latest UFO sighting in Sabah another UFO was sighted at Hangzhou, China on July 7. The sighting of this UFO practically forced the Chinese aviation security authorities to cease all airport operations for an hour. If this is a natural phenomenon or man made object will the Chinese authorities cease all operations at the airport for an hour?

This latest UFO sighting in China created a stir among the Chinese media circles and apparently sparked a firestorm of speculations on the UFOs identity.

Several UFO sighting reports in the past in the USA closer to nuclear missile facilities apparently created a panic among USA security chiefs when the missile panel electronics malfunctioned for no apparent reasons. Although the USA authorities have denied this incident independent UFO expert (J.Allen Hynek) reports suggest otherwise.

It's time we review our perceptions of UFO sightings in the country. Evidence is emerging in bit and pieces that we are been watched by some terrestrial beings. We need to scrutinize all UFOs sightings in view of the security implications. Perhaps we should encourage our scientists, police and national aviation security personals to familiarise on the subject of UFOs.

We should train them to conduct a systematic critical analysis of all UFO sightings in the country instead of brushing it off. If need be, we should consider setting up a special investigation unit perhaps under the national security council to investigate all UFO sightings.