Veteran Moro guerrillas heading to Sabah

The fighters are veteran members of the Moro National
Liberation Front and some have slipped through
the security forces.

MANILA: Battle-hardened Moro guerrillas have sailed from Mindanao to reinforce followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III who are battling Malaysian forces in Sabah, one of their leaders said Wednesday.

The fighters are veteran members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who waged a decades-long insurgency against the Philippine government before signing a 1996 peace pact, Muhajab Hashim told AFP.

“Many have slipped through the security forces. They know the area like the back of their hands because they trained there in the past,” Hashim told AFP.

Covering the elections fairly

I WAS struck last week by theSun’s reporting of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR)’s convention and newly unveiled manifesto. The 26 Feb 2013 coverage featured a full page on the PR convention and another colour page with a summary of the manifesto’s highlights. The articles were generally neutral and informative, and gave a good overview of what the PR was promising if it were to take federal power at the next general election. Reports the next day focused on analysts and non-governmental organisations’ critical reactions to the manifesto.

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez dead from cancer

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez hugs his daughters Rosa (left) and Maria while
appearing to supporters on a balcony of Miraflores Palace soon after his return to
the country from Cuba, where he underwent surgery and treatment for cancer,
in Caracas in this July 4, 2011 file photo. – Reuters pic

CARACAS, March 6 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died after a two-year battle with cancer, ending the socialist leader’s 14-year rule of the South American country, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised speech yesterday.

The flamboyant 58-year-old leader had undergone four operations in Cuba for a cancer that was first detected in his pelvic region in mid-2011. His last surgery was on Dec 11 and he had not been seen in public since.

‘Princess’ claims Kiram group alive, would free Malaysian hostages

Source

Self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III (seated, right)
and his followers display placards in front of Blue Mosque in
Maharlika village, near Manila, March 1, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 ― Rebel leader Agbimuddin Kiram and his band of militants have survived Malaysia’s aerial assault and “mop-up” operations, Sulu “princess” Jacel Kiram claimed this morning on national television in the Philippines.

The daughter of the elderly Jamalul Kiram, one of the nine claimants to the Sulu Sultanate, said her uncle was willing to release the four Malaysian hostages they claim to be holding captive, but wanted to do so in front of the international media and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Committee to prove they were unharmed

Misuari: Kill the Rajah Mudah and it’s war!

MNLF chairman warns Malaysian authorities that if
they killthe leader in Lahad Datu standoff, it would
trigger a war against the Tausugs

MANILA – Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari on Tuesday warned Malaysia against killing the Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III brother, Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram, and his men in Sabah as doing so would be tantamount to a declaration of war against the Tausugs and the former separatist group.

Speaking to reporters, Misuari advised Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak: “Once you do that, that will be tantamount to declaration of war against our people and the Moro National Liberation Front. It is our sacred duty to protect our people.

“Every drop of their blood is sacred to us,” Misuari added.

The MNLF founding leader, who signed a peace agreement with the Ramos government in 1997, also rejected as “wild speculation” any insinuation that he was behind the moves taken by the followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III in Sabah, www.abs-cbnnews.com reported.

Aquino tells plotters: You will not succeed

Kirams, accomplices will be held accountable

By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer

CONSPIRACY...President Aquino issues
warning to people who plotted the
expedition of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III’s
men to Sabah.

As violence spread in Sabah, President Aquino on Monday warned the conspirators in the intrusion of the followers of the sultan of Sulu into the eastern Malaysian state: “You will not succeed.”

In a televised address with officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the President spoke of the alleged involvement of officials of the Arroyo administration in the conspiracy, but he indicated that evidence was still being gathered on the role of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Aquino said cases were “being built up” against the players.

But the family of Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III said the government should show proof that there was a sinister intent behind their followers’ crossing into Sabah to stake their claim to the territory.

“All these are just allegations. Prove it. We challenge them to prove it,” Princess Jacel Kiram, daughter of the sultan, said at a news conference.

“They should prove their claim that we have conspirators. If we have conspirators, they are the people,” she said.

She reported fresh fighting in Tanduao village in Lahad Datu town in Sabah where a group of sultanate followers led by her uncle Agbimuddin Kiram is cornered by Malaysian security forces.

‘Missed’ targets, unpaid ‘settlements’

While claims of today's airstrikes in Lahad Datu were 'llegal',
a Kiram family member spoke of a Malaysian government
approved 'settlement' stuck in a 'bank' in Malaysia.

LAHAD DATU: Even as the Philippine media reported that this morning’s airstrikes “missed” their targets – which was the forces of Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram – in Kampung Tandao and neighbouring villages, a Manila senator urged his government to protect its citizens in Sabah.

Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr said the legality of the Kirams’ claim on Sabah was second to the fact that the people under attack were Filipinos.

“Whatever else the issue there [in Sabah] may be, the Sultan of Sulu and his people are Filipino citizens and, by virtue of that fact, they deserve protection from the government of the Philippines.

Does airstrikes really end the Tanduo siege ?

By Irfan Danial Leddu

LAHAD DATU : The month-long siege of a small Kampung Tanduo near Lahad Datu is set to end today with military jet fighters reportedly "bombing" the area earlier today.

Sources said, the army has taken over from the police today and would leave the scene soonest possible for Sabah's porous sea border in anticipation of further incursions.

Thousands of Tausugs leave to fight in Sabah

Source
Reinforcements from the Tausug tribe of Sulu numbering up to 10,000 have sailed to Sabah to aid their clansmen who are the followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, an official of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was quoted as saying by a major Manila-based broadsheet.

Majority of the MNLF members, including their chairman Nur Misuari, are members of the Tausug tribe.

“It is impossible to stop them from going to Sabah. We are hurt and many of our people are going to Sabah to help the sultanate,” the paper quoted MNLF Islamic council committee chairman Habib Hashim Mudjahab as saying.

Sabah between a fluid region and a hard stat

By Farish A Noor

Allow me to begin by stating categorically that I am a committed Southeast Asian-ist and a committed ASEAN-ist.

In my work as a lecturer I have constantly reminded my students of the constructed nature of Southeast Asia today, the relative newness of our political borders, and the newness of our nation-states. I have also emphasized the shared overlapping histories of the many diasporas that populate this complex and sometimes confounding archipelago of ours.