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.