Powder keg in Sabah

PERRYSCOPE

Perry Diaz

On February 9, 2013, the “Royal Army” of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo landed on the shores of Sabah near the village of Lahad Datu.  Their mission was to reclaim their ancestral land, which they claim is rightfully owned by the Sultanate of Sulu.

But the “intruders” – as the Malaysian government calls them — may have boxed themselves into a situation with nowhere to go… but fight.  Threatened with arrest by the Philippine government and confronted by several thousand Malaysian commandos armed with heavy weapons, the “intruders” dug in and prepared themselves to die fighting for their right to reclaim their ancestral land.

Sultan Jamalul Kiram III told reporters who interviewed him at his home in Taguig City in Metro Manila, “Why should we leave our own home?”  “Our followers will stay in Lahad Datu.  Nobody will be sent to the Philippines.  Sabah is our home… There is no turning back,” he said with finality.

Indeed, to the Tausugs of Sulu, Sabah is where home is.  The Tausugs have settled in Sabah since 1658 when the Sultan of Brunei ceded Sabah — or North Borneo as it was called then — to his cousin, the Sultan of Sulu, to compensate him for helping the Sultan of Brunei quell a rebellion in Brunei.

So, it did not come as a surprise when the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) placed all its fighters in Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan on alert as tension mounted between the Suluanons and Malaysian forces in LahadDatu.

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In an attempt to block further intrusion by Kiram’s “Royal Army” — which is led by Kiram’s brother, the crown prince Raja MudaAgbimuddinKiram — President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III sent six warships near Sabah.  This didn’t bode well with Filipino Muslims who sympathize with the Suluanons’ desire to retake Sabah.  It was further aggravated when the Aquino administration threatened to file charges against Sultan Kiram and his followers if they refuse to return home.

Last March 1, after a 17-day standoff with Malaysian forces, a shootout ensued.  Ten of Kiram’s followers were killed and three Malaysians dead including two commandos.

P-Noy then went on television to issue an ultimatum, “Surrender without conditions,” he told Kiram’s followers.  He warned them that they could be charged criminally as a result of their “decision to enter a foreign territory while bearing firearms.”

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At a press conference the following day at Sultan Kiram’s residence, the sultan’s daughter, Princess Jaycel, claimed that the unprovoked assault by the Malaysian forces was uncalled for.  “We suffered 14 casualties – 10 dead and four wounded.  Blood has flowed,” she said.  She then read a text message from Raja MudaAgbimuddinKiram: “After we buried our nine brothers and a sister at sundown, everyone of the 224 left decided to die in LahadDatu in pursuit of their dreams and aspirations… and have decided to put everything in the hands of Allah.”

“Honor is above life… What’s the use of life if we lose our honor,” she said.

Princess Jaycel then slammed the Philippine government for not taking any action after the shootout, which she said was “tantamount to massacre.”  She said that more than 3,000 Malaysian troops were involved in the attack on Kiram’s 235 followers of which only around 30 were armed.

Several lawmakers voiced their criticism of P-Noy’s handling of the incident.  One of them was Bayan Muna party-list Rep. NeriColmenares who said that the administration “mishandled” the three-week standoff.  “Our claim of Sabah is very strong especially since Malaysia paid rent to the Sultanate as early as during the British occupation. In fact it is as strong as our claim over Panatag shoals. It was a wrong move for the Aquino government to distance itself from the claim even portraying the claim as nuisance and threatening the Sultan’s men with arrest when they return,” he said.

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Meanwhile, MNLF political chief GapulHajirul warned that the armed conflict in Sabah could lead to a civil war because there are more than 8,500 Filipinos – mostly Tausugs or Suluk tribesmen — who are residing in Sabah.  “Our Tausug brothers and sisters of Sulu and the Samals of Tawi-Tawi were saddened and are hurting by the turn of events,” he said.  He said that only MNLF Chairman NurMisuari could decide on the matter.  However, he added that they would follow whatever Misuari decides to do.

On March 4, Manila-based Philippine Star, in its March 2 news report, “Sabah uprising,” said: “The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) said reinforcements from Mindanao also breached the Malaysian security cordon in Sandakan, another part of Sabah, and ambushed two truckloads of men belonging to the Malaysian Territorial Army Regiment.

“ ‘The reinforcements were able to wipe them out,’ said Habib Mujahab Hashim, chairman of the MNLF’s Islamic Command Council.

“Hashim, who said he was authorized by the Sulu sultanate to speak on the situation in Sabah, said the reinforcements used improvised dynamite or timbakisda for the ambush. The dynamite is normally used for blast fishing.”

The Sultanate of Sulu said that more reinforcements from Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi were arriving in Semporna where Filipinos killed five Malaysian security officers and captured four ranking Sabah officials.  Enraged by a Malaysian raid on an imam’s house, the Filipinos in Semporna retaliated last March 2 by attacking an army convoy and overrunning a district police headquarters.

Last March 5, Malaysian fighter jets and about seven battalions of police commandos attacked LahadDatu where Kiram’s followers were camped.  But before the attack, Kiram’s followers slipped out in the night.  When the Malaysian fighter jets bombed the camp, the Malaysian commandos were in the camp and Kiram’s followers safe in a secret location.

This is the kind of warfare that Filipino Muslims are very good at.  They have 500 years of experience.  That’s why they were never subjugated by a foreign power.  The Spaniards knew that and so did the Americans and Japanese… and the Philippine government, too.  And now the Malaysians are about to find that out what they’re up against.

If President Aquino wants to keep the Malaysian-brokered Bangsamoro peace accord in Mindanao, then he should play peacemaker between Malaysia and the Sultanate of Sulu in resolving the sovereignty issue of Sabah.  Otherwise, Sabah is a powder keg ready to explode.  And when that happens, forget about peace Sabah… and Mindanao.

The well-equipped Malaysian forces might be too strong for the rag-tag “Royal Army” to match.  But one has to remember that while they’ve always been fighting against superior forces, their will power is unsurpassed.

At the end of the day, peace in Mindanao and Sabah can only be achieved if all the players are brought to the table.  And that includes Malaysia who for 50 years had enjoyed the bounty of Sabah’s rich natural resources for a measly annual rent of 5,300 ringgits (US$1,500) to the Sultanate of Sulu.(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)