‘Flag-burning sultan’ says Sulu army fake

If the authorities allow the armed intruders in Lahad Datu
to leave peacefully, it only shows that the government is
 involved in this drama.

LAHAD DATU: A claimant to the North Borneo Sulu Sultanate is opposing the claim of the Sulu armed group that Sabah is their ancestral homeland.

“My family is the rightful owner to the throne,” said the 45-year-old Lahad Datu businessman Abdul Rajak Aliuddin who has proclaimed himself as the Sixth Sultan of North Borneo.

The controversial Rajak, who was once detained and charged for burning the Sabah flag and raising the North Borneo Sultanate flag with the red lion symbol, said based on history the Sulu armed group led by Raja Muda Azzimudie Kiram has no rights to Sabah or North Borneo.

Azzimudie is the brother of the Manila-acknowledged Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram, who is now undergoing dialysis treatment in the Philippines. Jamalul is based in the republic.

“My father Aliuddin Agasi was recognised as the fifth Sultan of North Borneo and he was one of those who signed the framework for the Malaysia agreement in 1962,” he said showing various documents to back his claim.

“Tun Mustapha and Tun Fuad Stephen were merely witnesses in the signing ceremony, but despite this my father was not even granted official recognition by Malaysian government till his last breath on 31st of January this year,” he added.

He said the Azzimudie group had no right to use the yellow flag with the lion which was purportedly raised in Kg Tandou after they occupied the village at Felda Sahabat 17 on Feb 9.

Azzimudie and more than 100 of his followers including gunmen in military fatigues have demanded that Malaysia recognised them as the “Royal Sulu Sultanate Army” and that no subject of the Sultan of Sulu be deported as Sabah was their ancestral home.

BN ‘sandiwara’?

Rajak told reporters here yesterday that the “occupation” of the village of Tanduo was a “sandiwara” (acting) for political reasons, and that if the BN government allowed the armed intruders to leave peacefully without taking any action against them, than it really showed BN government involvment.

He claimed that after the 1863 Brunei rebellion, North Borneo was made an autonomous sultanate with two other autonomous sultanates of Bolongan covering eastern Kalimantan and Sulu in southern Philippines.

He said they were all made autonomous and children of the Sultan were given full control of their respective kingdoms.

“Even Pahlawan, Tawi Tawi and Siasi in southern Philippines were under the sultanate of North Borneo,” he said.

He said that though his father had signed the Malaysian Agreement, the sultan had not signed the 20 points and documents to transfer the power of police, army and judiciary over to the federal government under article 121(1) of the federal constitution and as such these power remained in the hands of the Sultan of North Borneo.

There have been numerous claimants to the Sulu throne and over the years all have presented loads of documents to the media to back up their claim.

Two years ago, businessman Mohamad Akjan proclaimed himself the rightful heir to the Sulu Sultanate and held a ceremony in Kota Kinabalu to declare himself Sultan.

He was questioned and briefly detained by police after photos of his coronation as Sulu Sultan became public.