Sulu ruler issuing birth certificates to Filipinos in Sabah

Asia News Network
First Posted 17:48:00 07/09/2008

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- The issuance of birth certificates by the Sultanate of Sulu to illegal immigrants from the Philippines in Sabah has raised the question of sovereignty of Malaysia and the state, a party official said.

“How can this take place?” asked Democratic Action Party adviser Lim Kit Siang.

“It challenges the question of the sovereignty of Malaysia in Sabah and there is a disturbing implication in terms of long-term consequences because of the subsisting claim of the land in Sabah by the Filipinos," he said at the Parliament lobby Wednesday.

He said the issue was of great concern to the people in Sabah as the estimated number of illegal immigrants had exceeded the number of Sabahans.

“It makes Sabahans the strangers in their own land and this is why there is so much unhappiness among the people there,” he said.

He said there were about 100,000 to 140,000 illegal immigrants in Sabah in 1978 but the number had since risen to about 1.5 million.

Lim said he had made a copy of such a birth certificate and forwarded it to Deputy Home Minister Datuk Chor Chee Cheung. Lim said he hoped the Chor would make a ministerial statement in Parliament before the sitting adjourns on July 17.

Kota Kinabalu MP Hiew King Cheu said it was believed that the birth certificates had been recently distributed to Filipinos who were either born in Sabah or illegally migrated to the state.

“We want to know the motive behind this act,” he said. “We hope the government can investigate the case and solve the issue of land claim once and for all.”

Hiew said he would lodge a police report on the case when he returned to Kota Kinabalu on Thursday.

Malaysian authorities have been chasing out Filipinos from Sabah despite the existence of a legal claim by the Sulu Sultanate over the territory.

In 1658, the Sultanate of Brunei ceded the north-east portion of Borneo to the Sultan of Sulu as a reward for the Mindanao ruler’s help in winning a civil war in the Brunei Sultanate.

Today, Malaysia pays annual rentals to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu, who have granted the Philippine government power of attorney to pursue a sovereign claim on their behalf.

But the claim has been placed in the back burner due to Manila’s fears of severing cordial economic and security ties with Kuala Lumpur. Ng Cheng Yee, The Star-ANN with a report from INQUIRER.net in Manila