New sultan of Sulu vows to get Sabah from Malaysia

THE newly crowned sultan of Sulu in the southern Philippines said on Sunday he will fight to get back the state of Sabah from Malaysian control, claiming territorial rights over the North Borneo territory. “I will fight for my family’s rights in the World Court,” Rodinood Julaspi Kiram 2nd told hundreds of followers outside a mosque in Quezon City, where he was crowned the 29th sultan of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo. “Malaysia is illegally occupying Sabah. Sabah is ours, we will take it back.” Kiram said he was appalled to watch television images of Filipino women and children being maltreated by Malaysian police in several Sabah communities. Tens of thousands of Filipinos in Sabah have been sent back home since 2002. “The Malaysians have no authority to expel Filipinos from Sabah because the territory belongs to us,” he said, adding he would enlist the help of the Philippine government to bring his case to the International Court of Justice. Kiram, 56, is only now ascending to the sultanate’s throne, five years after his father’s death, because of confusion about succession rules. The last Sultan of Sulu left about 70 families as heirs. Kiram said Malaysia helped Muslim rebels fight Manila in the 1970s, providing the separatists with sanctuaries, training bases, weapons and moral support. He said he knew about the Malaysia’s role in the rebellion because he was a former guerrilla leader himself. Kiram said Malaysia has recently changed strategy and agreed to broker peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Muslim rebels only to protect its claims on Sabah. On Monday, President Arroyo will host a private dinner with Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s former prime minister, due to address a business conference this week. President Arroyo’s spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said Mrs. Arroyo will thank Mahathir for his key role in brokering talks between the government and Muslim rebels, due to resume this month in Kuala Lumpur. The dispute over Sabah is among long-standing irritants in ties between the two Southeast Asian nations, but was placed on the backburners as trade and investment links grew in the early 1990s. The Sultanate of Sulu obtained Sabah from the Sultanate of Brunei as a gift for helping put down a rebellion on the Borneo Island. The British leased Sabah and transferred control over the territory to Malaysia after the end of Second World War. Even after Sabah became part of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur still pays an annual rent of 5,000 ringgit ($1,315) to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu. In the 1960s, the Philippines tried and failed to claim ownership of Sabah, including a bungled covert operation that helped trigger a Muslim rebellion in the 1970s.--Reuters