Who Is Laughing? Silly Suspicious Sabah Sulu Standoff!

If Malaysia is clumsy about handling the Sabah standoff, it will have the same problem the Philippine government had when it fought a Muslim rebellion in the South in the 1970s up to the 1980s.

Malaysia is in a no-win situation as a result of the standoff in Sabah.

If it uses deadly force on a small group of armed Filipino Muslims now holed up in the village of Tanduo in Lahad Datu town in Sabah, members of the fiercest of Philippine Moro tribe, the Tausogs of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, will retaliate.

If, on the other hand, Malaysia compromises with the armed group purportedly belonging to the Sultanate of Sulu, it will be perceived as a weakling by its neighbors.

Which will Malaysia choose, fighting  a rebellion in the Sabah state or swallowing its pride and compromise with the Sultanate of Sulu?
Better to be perceived as a weakling rather than have a bloody civil war in Sabah.
There is no record of the number of Filipinos, mostly Tausogs, in Sabah.

But a friend of mine who used to be in the Philippine military intelligence estimates that one-third of the population in the Malaysian state is Tausog.

Many of the people in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi have relatives in Sabah, which is just one hour by speedboat from Simunul in Tawi-Tawi.

If the Tausogs in Sabah rise up in revolt against the Malaysian government, their relatives in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi will go to Sabah and fight with them.

To the Tausogs, the claim of the group purporting to represent the Sultanate of Sulu that Sabah belongs to the sultanate is legitimate.

The Sulu Sultanate, long dormant and somewhat forgotten because of the war waged by the Tausog-led MNLF against the government, is still revered by Moros in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Tausogs respect the Sultan of Sulu in much the same way Malaysians pay homage to their royal family.

If harm is done to Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram, brother of Sultan Jamalul Kiram, who ordered the Mudah Agbimuddin to enter Sabah, his fellow Tausogs in Sabah and in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi will take up arms against the Malaysian government.

Filipino Muslims declare a rido or vendetta against people who harm their relatives.

The Rido has set off feuds between families or clans that last for decades.

Most of the Tausogs in Sabah have relatives in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi who are ready to take revenge if harm is done to Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram and his armed followers in Lahad Datu town.

My source in Sulu said that even before the landing of 200 men in Lahad Datu last week, the Sultanate had already sent armed men in small groups to Sabah to escape notice from authorities.
The armed groups are being coddled by Tausogs in the Malaysian state.

The ocean border between Sabah and the Philippines is porous or easily penetrated.

Most of the tens of thousands of Filipino illegal immigrants in Sabah entered through this porous border.

It’s very easy for armed Tausogs to enter Sabah and wage a guerrilla war against the Malaysian government should hostilities break out between the Sultanate group and Malaysian police.

Tausogs love to fight and look for reasons to pick  a fight.

If Malaysia assumes a violent stance against the Sulu Sultanate group, the Tausogs will have a reason to fight them.
* * *

When the government was fighting the MNLF in the 1970s through the 1980s, Malaysia was secretly supporting the rebellion in the South.

Weapons coming from Libya and other Middle East countries passed through Malaysia on their way to the MNLF.

Now, it seems the shoe is on the other foot.

The law of karma is being played out.

2 comments:

  1. LOOKS LIKE MALAYA BOUGHT ITSELF A LEMON- PUPPET CONTROLS THE MASTER IN SUSPICIOUS SABAH STANDOFF

    In mollycoddling the Sulu insurgents UMNO has burdened itself with a devil which like the one in the fabled story is stuck on UMNO's back and can't be got rid off easily.

    UMNO must be held responsible for its part in playing with fire by stirring up the Moro unrest in the Southern Philippines in the late 1960s. By creating a a devil child it has had to feed and look after it.

    Now it has grown into a Monster which can control UMNO at least on the Sabah front!

    On the last count there are allegedly 1500 armed men in Lahad Datu and this is small size army which can conduct a full scale guerrilla war to take over Sabah.

    Yah- ask for US help.... Japan also asking for US help being the culprit who gave control of the Diaoyu Islands to Japan!

    US gave away the Sulu disputed part of Sabah to Malaya when it did not make objections but fully supported the British/Malayan unilateral formation of Malaysia.

    Another devil comes home to chew over the master conspirators! Or is it chickens coming home to roost! Like so many post war colonial solutions using puppet to take over rule of the former colonies.

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  2. Dear Filipinos bloggers,

    By due all respect, please stop stating things that you didn't have any proof. Saying that Malaysian government is supporting the MNLF is just like saying that you guys are supporting North Korean nuclear program.

    We know how to handle this situation. Some of these Tausogs-clan even have become a top leaders in Malaysia. Moreover, Sabah is already having their own government. The Malaysian government already given Sabah and Sarawak the power to reign on their own a long time ago. They even have their own ministers to conduct their internal matters.

    So in that respect you guys are completely clueless.

    If Sabahans are able to manage their own state, why must they become part of Sulu sultanate??? They already independent and is now ruling their own state. Those Tausogs in Sabah has a great life being Sabahans and they need not to share their wealth with a long lost Sultan whatever his name is....

    Again you guys are completely clueless, right?...

    Malaysian government gave the 3 weeks to leave in peace, the Malaysian government even gave them food. Perhaps you guys didn't know that those 3 armed forces who died are police officers,.... they were not soldiers. Let our armed forces special unit of royal Komandos in there and i'm pretty sure that there will be no mercy to those thugs who is still living on a long lost memories.

    Don't talk about guerilla war... We've been there during Indonesian Konfrontasi and we don't mind if few thousand thugs from Tawi2 would like to test our Komando unit abilities again. Bring it on...

    You guys writing based on frustrations. The fact that your government cannot handle the matter of MNLF until it is too difficult to handle and in the end have to gave up Moro island to the Muslims, which is our brothers in Islam.

    One fact that you guys underestimate is Malaysia and Moro are both Muslim based country. Because of that, we are brothers and sisters. There will always be a way for us to settle this matter peacefully. Believe me this cowardice sultan and few hundreds of his followers are just a minority who is power lust and crazy enough to believe that Sabah belongs to them.

    No Pinos.... Sabah belongs to Sabahans.... and by far they are live happily with the help of central government, Kuala Lumpur.

    I tell you this so that you know.

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