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MANILA, Philippines—In 1939, a decision issued by the high court of North Borneo named the nine principal heirs of the last sultan of Sulu, whose descendants had been pressing their claim to Sabah.
Known as the 1939 Macaskie Judgment, the nine principal heirs of Sultan Jamalul Kiram II were Datu Punjungan Kiram, Datu Esmail Kiram, Dayang Dayang Piandao Kiram, Dayang Dayang Sitti Rada Kiram, Princess Tarhata Kiram, Princess Sakinur-In Kiram, Dayang Dayang Putli Jahara Kiram, Dayang Dayang Sitti Mariam Kiram and Mora Napsa.
Jamalul II’s father, Sultan Jamalul Ahlam, leased Sabah in 1878 to British North Borneo Co. Under the agreement, the company would pay 5,300 Mexican gold pieces a year to the Kingdom of Sulu. It continued to do so until 1936, when Jamalul II died.
After Jamalul II’s death, the British consul in Manila recommended the suspension of payments because President Manuel L. Quezon did not recognize Jamalul II’s successor.
Sultan Punjungan Kiram, crown prince of the sultanate at the time of Jamalul II’s death, went to the British consulate in Manila to demand the resumption of payments.
P77,000 rent
After the court decision, British North Borneo Co. complied for several years. It stopped paying when its rights to Sabah were transferred to the newly established Federation of Malaysia in 1963. The new government assumed the payment but in ringgit.
Every year, the Malaysian Embassy in the Philippines issues a check in the amount of 5,300 ringgit (about P77,000) to the legal counsel of Jamalul Ahlam’s descendants. Malaysia considers the amount an annual “cession” payment for the disputed state, while the sultan’s descendants consider it “rent.”
According to Abraham Julpa Idjirani, secretary general and spokesperson of the sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo, the direct descendants and heirs of the sultan of Sulu and North Borneo at present are Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, Sultan Bantilan Esmail Kiram III, Datu Alianapia Kiram, Datu Phugdal Kiram, Datu Baduruddin Kiram and the crown prince, Agbimuddin Kiram, official administrator of Sabah and son of Datu Punjungan.
Lies
In July 2008, there were reports that Jamalul II’s heirs had “dropped” their Sabah claim, but these were dismissed as untrue by the heirs. In the reports, Malaysian Datu Omar Ali Datu Backtiyal told a local newspaper in Malaysia that he had obtained the signatures of the nine heirs for the relinquishment of their claim to Sabah. The heirs dismissed the reports as “lies.”
Over the years, Jamalul II’s heirs have tried to get the attention of authorities by writing to them, but to no avail.
In February 1999, the late Princess Denchurain Kiram, daughter of Princess Tarhata, wrote then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad through former President Joseph Estrada to request for an increase in the annual rental. She died in September 2000 without receiving a reply.
No reply to letters
In January 2001, Sultan Esmail Kiram II and Princess Taj Mahal Kiram Tarsum-Nuqui, daughter of Princess Denchurain, wrote a similar letter to Mahathir through former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
In August 2003, the heirs sent Arroyo another letter asking for help in requesting the Malaysian government to increase the rent, but nothing happened.
In February 2005 the heirs wrote another letter to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, but were likewise ignored. Inquirer Research
Source: Inquirer Archives
In the mid 1980s, the Marcos Administration revived the issue of the Sabah Claim by fixing certain terms and conditions to the Malaysian Government before the claim in question could be denounced or dropped publicly.
ReplyDeleteThe Malaysia government need to be firm against the demands of the Sulu Army.
DeleteThe demand for compensation in the form of monetary payment amounting to the tune of several billions in United States currency plus lengthy period of crude oil supplies to the Philippines, constituted two of the primary conditional terms.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the nature of the demand appeared substantially unreasonable, which the Malaysian Government could not accept.
DeleteBRUNEI CLAIM TO LIMBANG TRADE OFF BY UMNO WITH 2 BLOCKS OF SARAWAK OFFSHORE OIL FIELDS WITHOUT SARAWAKIANS AGREEMENT!
ReplyDeleteWhen Corazon Aquino replaced Marcos via People Power, the issue of the Sabah Claim along with the so-called demand was gradually grounded to a standstill until today.
ReplyDeleteThe Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) comprises four provinces - Magunindanao & Lanao Del Sur on the mainland, while the island provinces consist of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi with an extensive total land area of 11,996sq km and having an estimated population of more than three million peoples excluding those who had made massive exodus out of their homeland during the crux of the civil war in early '70's.
ReplyDeleteSabah's long coastlines, stretching from the tip of Bengkoka peninsular at the northern region right down to Cowie Harbour within the proximity of Indonesian territorial border of Kalimantan, is where migrants managed to sneak silently or illegally into the State.
ReplyDeleteMustapha's Usno led Alliance State Government welcomed the string of unstoppable influx of political refugees from the Southern Philippines on humanitarian grounds without fixed conditions at that time.
ReplyDeleteOver the years, these so-called political refugees did not show willingness to return even though the wars and conflicts had largely stopped.
ReplyDeleteThe scenario worsened when a new breed of Filipinos classified as "Illegal Immigrants" infested every nook and corner of the State in the thousands in search of greener pasture, raising many eye brows and questions.
ReplyDeletePatrolling coastal guards are unable to detect the aliens secret routes probably because they are unlike the US border guards.
ReplyDeleteDuring the previous Regularisation Programme which ended on Aug 31, 1997, the Federal Special Task Force estimated Indonesian and Filipinos inclusive of their dependents to be more than 400,000.
ReplyDeleteFederal Task Force for Sabah and Labuan Director Datuk Suhaimi Mohd Salleh said "Exact numbers of Filipinos in Sabah are hard to determine. In Sabah they have been categorised as Refugees, Legal Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants, a factor that makes it difficult to state their accurate population in the State.
ReplyDeleteAnother factor is that there is no liaison office of the Philippines or their Consulate in Sabah to enable their citizens to obtain passports and other valid travel documents.
ReplyDeleteARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman was quoted as saying that his government and the Sabah Government could work jointly to address the problem of the huge presence of Filipino refugees in Sabah."If there is no conflict and there are economic opportunities in this region, then the Bangsamoro brothers will be pushed to come back".
ReplyDeleteIt is still fresh in the memories of many living Sabahans that Prof. Nur Masuri, former Governor of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) cum Chairman of MNLF while on a sojourn to Sabah way back in 1997, a year after he signed the previous peace plan with the Philippines government "Masuri had expected to call on the estimated 300,000 Filipinos immigrants in Sabah to return home as their resources would be required to rebuild the Southern Region when peace had been fully restored" (The New Straits Times October 28th 1997).
ReplyDeleteIronically, Masuri's Visions and Missions did not materialise as clusters of problems, stigmas and conflicts of interest and opinions, begun to crop up without a solution in sight from within his own organisation leading to the creation of the MILF, led by Hasim Salamat and posing a stiff threat to Masuri's Peace Plan and Autonomy within the region.
ReplyDeleteThe emergence of Abu Sayyaf, the most radical group operating within the region and well known for raising funds by kidnapping people for ransom was another obstacle to Mosuri's peace plan then.Some believe it is linked to Al-Qaeda, the organisation formed by the late Osama Bin Laden.
ReplyDeleteCM Musa, who was among the State dignitaries invited by Najib to witness the signing of the peace treaty accord in Manila recently said "It is a reflection of the commitment towards ending decades of violence and give the Bangsamoro people a chance to live on their own land in peace .
ReplyDeleteThe successful implementation of the peace treaty between the relevant parties augurs well for the Bangsamoro business leaders to tap the marketing prospects available locally and abroad via the integration platform of The Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines-East Asia Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).
ReplyDeleteThe Philippines Government had vested this task to The International Monitoring Team (IMT) which has been on peace mission since Sept, 2004, to continue monitoring the momentum of resolving the armed conflict between the rival parties in Mindanao.
ReplyDeleteHence, Malaysia's rays of hope in seeking perennial settlement to the long stand Sabah Claim Issue is within sight, judging from our country's role as mediator that had fruitfully led to the signing of the historic treaty.
ReplyDeleteI can only hope that by this time the followers of Jamalul Kiram have withdrawn peacefully from Tanduao in Sabah. Theirs is a no-win situation. They can neither win a physical nor moral victory by remaining there. They can neither gain territory nor sympathy by remaining there.
ReplyDeleteTheir armed incursion is counterproductive. At the very least, as nearly every observer has pointed out, their timing sucks. The Philippine government stands on the threshold of forging one of the most vital agreements in history, one that could end the centuries-long war between government and the Muslim rebels of Mindanao.
DeleteIndeed, one that could finally put an end to the latter’s secessionist stirrings, persuading them to take the giant leap, or paradigm shift, of seeing themselves as part of the Philippine polity, albeit with a wide latitude for self-governance. You would imagine everyone would exert themselves to make this dream come true.
DeleteThis one does not. The incursion into Sabah undercuts it, undermines it, subverts it. Crucial to clinching the peace agreement—one incidentally that still has quite a long way to go; government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are merely at the stage of discussing the shape and form and size of the Bangsamoro entity—is the help of Malaysia in it. It was Malaysia that brokered it, it was Malaysia that hosted the preliminary talks, it was Malaysia that persuaded the MILF to see the light. And it is Malaysia that Kiram’s group is pissing off.
DeleteIt’s enough to give credence to speculation that the group was goaded and possibly funded into doing it by groups opposed to the peace agreement, not least the Moro National Liberation Front. But even if it did not, it puts a dampening effect on relations between the Philippine and Malaysian governments, if not indeed a barrier between them. That cannot augur well for the agreement. Nothing can be more badly timed.
DeleteJust as well, it undercuts, undermines and subverts the Philippine position in its territorial conflict with China. It makes us out, and not China, to be given to expansionism, to be a little addled about what is ours and what is not, and perfectly willing to indulge in aggressive and preposterous adventures to claim what we delude ourselves to be ours. At least it opens us to that charge, and various Chinese quarters have been quick to jump at that opening. Why shouldn’t they? Again, nothing can be more contretemps. At the very most, the substance doesn’t make things better.
DeleteFirst off, Kiram’s claim is based on a 19th-century colonial document that says North Borneo belongs to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu. Colonial documents are always tricky stuff. Not least because they tend to acquire all sorts of legal encrustations over the centuries, making resolutions the hardest thing in the world. A legal axiom says that possession is nine-tenths of the law. Not even Ferdinand Marcos, with his propensity to supplement legal measures with thuggish ones, managed to get far in laying a claim to Sabah. Quite incidentally, that legal axiom, possession is nine-tenths of the law, is the bedrock of our claim to the Kalayaan Islands: they have “always been ours” for as long as we can remember. Why should we want to undermine it?
DeleteMore than that, you base a legal claim on colonial documents, you recognize, acknowledge, uphold the legal and moral validity of colonialism itself. What in fact is colonialism? However it is justified, it is the naked seizure, grabbing and annexation of territory by the strong from the weak. I’ve always been leery of claims based on colonial documents on that ground. I’ve always thought the better tack, particularly in these postcolonial times, when hindsight allows us 20-20 vision, is to condemn the arrangements it made as being founded on a crime.
DeleteWhence, for example, came the moral and legal right of Spain to sell the Philippines to the United States for $20 million? Particularly when it was facing a full-blown revolution that was on the cusp of victory? Did that sale naturally make the Philippines an American property? Resting your claim on a colonial document is not unlike insisting on your right to a stolen good that a thief has fenced because you bought it in good faith.
DeleteSecond off, which is the irony of it, the claim to Sabah is not being made on behalf of the Philippine government, it is being made on behalf of the Sultan of Sulu. Those who clamor loudly that the Philippine government should revive its claim to Sabah in light of Kiram’s initiative should be mindful of this.
DeleteThe fact that the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu are invoking an agreement with Britain shows they are doing so not as private property owners but as a very public one—as a political entity no less. You do not make an agreement or treaty with a private individual or group, you make it with a nation or political group. The armed incursion into Sabah doesn’t just force the Malaysian government to recognize the Sultan of Sulu’s presumed property rights, it forces the Philippine government to recognize the presumed existence of the Sultanate of Sulu.
DeleteBut of course the Philippine government can’t possibly support this adventurism, if for no other reason than this. At a time when we’ve just succeeded in persuading the Muslims in Mindanao to give up secessionism and think of integration, we want to complicate matters by creating a new and separate “government”?
DeleteAnd finally, the inhabitants of Sabah have regarded themselves as Malaysians for as long as they can remember. The question isn’t even if they would rather become Filipinos instead after all this time, which defies logic. The question is if they would rather become subjects of the Sultan of Sulu, which defies sanity. All in all, not a very good idea.
DeleteThere is nothing more to discuss with the intruders, they came to our country illegally and yet they want to make demands?
ReplyDeleteThose intruders need to leave our country and go home, our government will not give in to their demands.
ReplyDeleteHope that this matter can be resolved between the government of both countries without any blood shed.
ReplyDeleteIn the mean time, we rely on our army troops and police force to keep the situation in hand.
ReplyDeleteThe Sulu sultan is a scam.
ReplyDelete