Rody pressed to lift Sabah
These are schools, hospitals, scholarship programs for our youth — important matters that will be of benefit to the region and our brotherhood
A call to unite the heirs sparked the first serious effort by the Sultanate of Sulu to draw Malaysia back to the table at the term of President Rodrigo Duterte to discuss their “legitimate and historical” claim to Sabah.
Sultan Muedzul Lail Tan Kiram, chief of
the Royal House of Sulu, said a united call towards an “amicable solution” to the territorial dispute over what is now known as North Borneo is needed to bolster the Philippine position.
But he emphasized that Mr. Duterte’s support is needed for the talks to happen.
“Settlement of the Sabah issue is among the campaign promises made by President Duterte,” the sultanate’s Prime Minister or Wazir Amroussi Rasul stated. “The Tausug people will not forget his promise that he will give his full support to the Sabah claim.”
The sultanate expressed gratitude to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. for asserting the ancestral rights of the Sulu people.
The Sabah issue came to fore anew after Locsin chastised the Malaysian envoy Norman Muhamad who branded returning Filipinos from North Borneo as “expatriates.”
“When this COVID-19 was starting and Zamboanga was getting quite a lot of infections from Filipinos leaving Sabah to return to Zamboanga, I told the ambassador, ‘Don’t you dare call them repatriates,’” Locsin said. “‘You just say you’re moving Filipinos from one place to the other. Don’t you dare call them that’ and he has not.”
Then Locsin lambasted the United States Embassy in the Philippines for calling Sabah as part of Malaysia.
“Sabah is not in Malaysia if you want to have anything to do with the Philippines,” an irate Locsin tweeted.
“The people of Sulu are proud of their heritage and we sincerely thank H.E.
Locsin for helping assert our rights,” a statement from the sultanate read.
“We hope the government of Malaysia understands the plight of the thousands of underprivileged and indigenous families of Sulu who barely survive in Sabah during this pandemic,” the paper said.
Some 6,000 Filipinos were expected to return from Sabah to escape the tough conditions in the island which is also suffering from the effects of the new coronavirus pandemic.
“Malaysia should give back to the people of Sulu what it has not delivered from its part of the bargain since we last talked,” Rasul said. “These are schools, hospitals, scholarship programs for our youth — important matters that will be of benefit to the region and our brotherhood.”
“Sadly, none of this is happening now.
That is why we are asking the President, to stand up for us — the people of Sulu, of Mindanao,” Rasul added.
Unlike in 2013 when an army of 200 Tausug went to Sabah to assert the Philippine claim, the sultanate reiterated that it “aspire(s) for an amicable solution to the predicament that affects us all in this region.”
Sultan Muedzul Lail Tan Kiram, chief of the Royal House of Sulu, said a united call towards an amicable solution to the territorial dispute is needed to bolster the Philippine position.
A bloody battle that resulted in the death of some 60 Tausug warriors transpired in that incursion of Lahad Datu, Sabah five years ago. The Filipinos also claimed they felt abandoned by former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, when he ordered their return to Sulu and took Malaysia’s official position in turning them back.
That group was sent to Sabah by Jamalul Kiram III, one of the claimants to the throne of the Sultanate of Sulu. Jamalul died shortly after that misadventure.
The statement attributed a plea from Muedzul Lail Tan Kiram, direct descendant of the late Sultan Mohammad Ismail Enang Kiram — the present chief’s grandfather, for the family “to unite for the sake of all the people of Sulu.”
He also “pleads for continued patience as there is no need to repeat the unfortunate circumstance of the past.”
“The Royal House of Sulu firmly believes that diplomacy will allow us to move forward as governments and other parties involved play a crucial role (in) alleviating our people from poverty,” the paper said.
Muedzul Lail Tan Kiram has held his position since 16 February 1986.
As the eldest son of the former Sultan Mohammad Mahakuttah Abdulla Kiram, he is the legitimate heir to the throne of the Sultanate of Sulu despite the presence of many other claimants.