It hits me that my beloved country Malaysia is at war today!
All prayers to our patriots in Lahad Datu, Sabah. May all of you be safe from harm and able to protect our country from the intruders. We can not thank you enough for your bravery and for being in the forefront guarding our rights to peace and harmony today and the days after. May all of you be granted with the utmost appreciation and gratification here and the hereafter. To the patriots who have lost their lives in the name of protecting our country, my deepest condolences to the families. These are the true heroes, salute!
In relation to this, the kepochi lawyer in me starts to want to know more. Who are these people who claim themselves as the Sultan of Sulu? Why are there so many people claiming that they are the legitimate heir to the throne? Why do they decide to intrude our sovereign country now?
In order to digest all these, I try to probe further in thinking why didn't they seek recourse through legal means by bringing this matter to the International Court of Justice? From my research I note that the Philippines Government had tried to bring the matter of Sabah to the International Court of Justice but the Malaysian Government had regarded it as a non-issue and thus dismissed the claim.
I am definitely not and expert in this issue, just a commoner who wants to know more of what ticks this particular so called Sultan to take this course of action. He is not only intruding our country and disturbing our peace and harmony but also exposing his followers to harm and criminal punishment in order to follow his not well thought of plan. Waging war against the ruler of a sovereign country is a criminal act and an offence which is punishable by death penalty. I am sure these intruders know of the consequences of their action but this may lead to another discussion to understand a criminal mind, which I rather not touch here.
Nonetheless, the origin of the matter here is, hypothetically, should you come from such a wealthy family dated back sometime in the 16th century, however because of some turn of an event, your family lost your rights to those accumulated wealth by relinquishing it either by way of lease or maybe also deem as ceding it in perpetuity (this happens most probably because of lack of understanding on the terminology used in the treaty/arrangement signed), a few hundred years later (and a few times removed here and there in your family tree), you decided that you want it back! Yes, you want it ALL back! Yup, in Malay language it can be deemed as "buruk siku" which might be funny if it is a kid's toy but not in term of a state whom its citizens have chosen to be part of a sovereign nation which is unfortunately, not yours.
To add salt to the wound, a few hundred years later now, there are a number of people claimed that they are the legitimate Sultan of Sulu. Therefore there is no certainty in your claim, let alone exclusivity. Anyone who is even remotely related to the royal family now claims that they have the right to the throne which is quite interesting as this throne and title do not come with any state or soil to rule. The plot thickens in this Lahad Datu stand off as this particular delusional claimant is not even recognised as the current Sultan of Sulu. The current recognised heir of the Sulu Sultanate is Ismael Kiram II who is a different person from Jamalul Kiram II who is now under the limelight for negligently put himself and his followers on danger by intruding our sovereignty and deemed as terrorist as he and his followers have killed 8 of our VAT69 commandos.
Photo of the old Sultan of Sulu (who was actually recognised back then) and entourage (Reminded much of the old P. Ramlee movie, Raja Pasola or something? But I guess when you look at old photos, you would always think of P. Ramlee's movies...)
A summarised snapshot of events:
1878: A treaty signed between the Sultan of Sulu and British commercial syndicate (Alfred Dent and Baron von Overback) - stipulated that North Borneo either ceded or leased (depending on translation used) in return of 5000 Malayan Dollar payment per year.
1885: Madrid Protocol - Spain amongst others relinquished all claim to North Borneo which had belong to the Sulu Sultanate in the past to the British North Borneo Company.
1903: Sultan of Sulu signed a document known as "Confirmation of cession of certain islands" (either granted or ceded or leased - again loss in translation, sapelah lawyer zaman ni) with British North Borneo Company, the sum 5000 increased to 5300.
1963: Via an election, the majority of the people in the North Borneo territory has voted to be part of Malaysia. This is further reinforced by the International Court of Justice view that,
"...historic title, no matter how persuasively claimed on the basis of old legal instruments and exercises of authority, cannot - except in the most extraordinary circumstances - prevail in law over the rights of non-self-governing people to claim independence and establish their sovereignty through the exercise of bona fide self-determination." |
The British and Malayan Governments at that point of time had set a commission named Cobbold Commission to address and determine the people of the North Borneo's inclination which was lead by Lord Cobbold. The Cobbold Commission's findings reported that almost 2/3 of the people are receptive to be included in the new established sovereign, Malaysia. Nonetheless the findings of the commission was rejected by both Indonesia and Philippines. Pursuant to the rejection, Indonesia launched the policy of "konfrontasi" towards Malaysia which hampered relation between these two sovereigns and only managed to be normalised some time in the 1980s. While Philippines do not launch any direct rejections like Indonesia, is still pursuing their claim in Sabah.
Knowing all these facts, I now have a little bit of understanding on why did our Government took some time before pursuing the intruders with the full on offensive military attack as there are too many sensitive issues that need to be threaded carefully. The ultimate goal is to try to avoid bloodshed at all cost. Nonetheless, bloodshed still occurred and today Malaysia is fighting for its sovereignty and honour.
Some things in the past should be left in the past and this should be taken as a lesson for all. As someone from the legal fraternity, I believe that this whole commotion can be avoided should the treaty and agreements were drafted and communicated clearly between the parties involved.
As a general rule of thumb, one need to always take cognizance that before signing on the dotted line, one should ensure that one fully understands its intention and effect and that to seek legal advise should there are any areas of ambiguity.
For further reading and interesting facts to feed our curiosity and also for self enlightenment, I recommend the following links:
http://www.bt.com.bn/life/2008/09/21/how_brunei_lost_its_northern_province
http://www.lawnet.sabah.gov.my/Lawnet/SabahLaws/Treaties/CommissionFromSultanOfSuluAppointingBaronDeOverbeckDatuBandaharAndRajahOfSandakan.pdf
http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/ayil1968&div=11&id=&page=
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Borneo_dispute
http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/ayil1967&div=7&id=&page=
xoxo
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