ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / March 11, 213) – Malaysia’s Bar Council said that the Sultanate of Sulu no longer has any legal claim over North Borneo and its surrounding islands.
Bar Council Vice President Christopher Leong said the International Court of Justice also recognised Malaysia’s rights and sovereignty over North Borneo, now called Sabah, during a territorial dispute in 2002.
“The Sultanate of Sulu had, by its several actions and by various separate instruments between 19 April 1851 and 26 June 1946, relinquished and ceded all of its rights, interests and dominion over what was previously referred to as North Borneo,” Leong said in a report published by the Malaysian Insider newspaper.
“The Sultanate of Sulu, even if such an entity were to legally exist today, has no subsisting legitimate claim to Sabah,” Leong said, adding the ICJ recognised Malaysia’s claim in its decision on the dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia over the islands of Ligitan and Sipadan off the coast of Sabah in December 2002.
The Philippines had at the time applied to intervene in the case, but its application was rejected, he said.
The Sulu Sultanate is claiming historical rights over North Borneo where fighting between its followers and Malaysian security forces left more than 50 people dead from both sides since last month.
Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III has sent his brother Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram along with some 200 followers to the oil-rich island to exert determination and recognition from the Malaysian government, but this was flatly rejected by Kuala Lumpur and ordered a massive assault on the rag-tag army armed only with knives and guns following a standoff in the town of Lahad Datu.
The Sulu Sultanate said it had merely leased North Borneo in 1878 to the British North Borneo Company for an annual payment of 5,000 Malayan dollars then, which was increased to 5,300 Malayan dollars in 1903.
Sabah, however, joined Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore to form Malaysia in 1963, after which Malaysia continued paying an annual stipend of 5,300 ringgits to the Sulu sultanate on the basis of the sultanate ceding the Borneo state. In a referendum organised by the Cobbold Commission in 1962, the people of Sabah voted overwhelmingly to join Malaysia.
The Bar Council urged the Malaysian government to resolve the ongoing conflict in Lahad Datu peacefully and treat Filipino prisoners according to international humanitarian law and international human rights standards.
“As we seek to assert our rights and protect our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we must continue to conduct ourselves with a strong sense of dignity and professionalism, with due observance of our own laws as well as international laws and standards,” Leong said.
Malaysia arrested at least 85 suspected supporters of Sultan Jamalul in North Borneo under the so-called Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) where authorities can detain a person for up to two years without trial.
Manila has expressed grave concern about the human rights violations committed against Filipinos in North Borneo.
It urged Malaysia to give access to Philippine Embassy officials and humanitarian teams in Lahad Datu town and other areas where Malaysian security forces are fighting followers of Sultan Jamalul.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs views with grave concern the alleged rounding up of community members of Suluk/Tausug descent in Lahad Datu and other areas in Sabah and the alleged violations of human rights reported in the media by some Filipinos who arrived in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi from Sabah. We reiterate our call on the Malaysian Government to give humane treatment to the Filipinos under their custody,” it said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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