Sarawak now wants independence

 ‘Inspired by actions of Sultan of Sulu heirs vs. Malaysia”

FOLLOWING THE French arbitration ruling which ordered Malaysia to pay the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu some $14 billion based on the alleged violation of payments of RM5,300 cession money under an 1878 agreement, some politicians in the state of Sarawak - under Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) - are now using the actions taken by the heirs of Sulu sultan to demand freedom and independence from the Federal government.

Spanish Arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa issued the award in a Paris court on February 28, but Malaysia maintained its sovereign immunity. 

The heirs’ claims were originally heard in Madrid until the Madrid High Court annulled Stampa’s appointment on grounds that Malaysia was not properly informed about the case and was thus “defenceless”. The case was later moved to the French capital. 

A report by the Spanish news website La Información which said that Stampa had issued the award, ruling that the treaty was a commercial “international private lease agreement.”  

The 1878 agreement was signed by Sultan Jamal Al Alam, Baron de Overbeck and the British North Borneo Company’s Alfred Dent.

By not paying the cession money since 2013, Stampa said Malaysia had breached the agreement and would have three months to pay up failing which interest would be charged if the decision was not accepted. 

Malaysia stopped paying the Sultan Sulu’s heirs their annual cession money after over 200 armed followers of the Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram III led by his younger brother Agbimuddin Kiram landed in Lahad Datu town in Sabah to press the ancestral claim on the oil-rich territory.  

Malaysia responded by sending troops and launching airstrikes before the stand-off ended. The conflict, which lasted more than a month, resulted in the deaths of 68 men from the Sulu sultanate, nine Malaysian armed services personnel and six civilians.  

Sarawak’s Parti Bumi Kenyalang president Voon Lee Shan said it could be that by taking Sabah as part of Malaysia from the British and Malaysia being the successor of this colony from the United Kingdom ‘made herself being sued by the descendants of the Sulu Sultan for the breaches of the 1878 Agreement.

“A failure to do so should be seen by Sarawakians as an inability by the GPS government to protect Sarawak rights. The fact that the Federal government and the state governments of Sabah and Sarawak had formed steering committees to deliberate and overcome the breaches leading to recent amendments to the Federal Constitution, is a clear admission or acknowledgement by the federal, Sarawak and Sabah governments of the breaches of the terms and conditions of MA63,” the Borneo Post quoted Shan as saying.

He said for the record, Sarawak and Sabah were once colonies of the United Kingdom, and Malaya became its successor after Sarawak and Sabah were handed to Malaya to enlarge her territories to form Malaysia.

“This should be used by the Sarawak government to make the federal government of Malaysia liable for damages, loss of revenues, oil and gas and all other rights that Sarawak had suffered caused by the breaches. It is also a good ground for the GPS government to demand freedom and independence from the Federation because most Sarawakians want independence now,” he said.

The Sultanate of Sulu was founded in 1457 and is believed to exist as a sovereign nation for at least 442 years. It stretches from a part of the island of Mindanao in the east, to Sabah, in the west and south, and to Palawan, in the north.

It continues to lay claim to North Borneo, now Sabah, after obtaining it from Brunei as a gift for helping put down a rebellion on Borneo Island. 

The British leased Sabah and transferred control over the territory to Malaysia after the end of World War II. But the 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. 

North Borneo was annexed by Malaysia in 1963 after a referendum organized by the Cobbold Commission in 1962 saw the people of Sabah voting overwhelmingly to join Malaysia, but Kuala Lumpur continued paying the Sulu Sultanate some 5,300 ringgits a year on the basis of the Sulu royals’ ceding the Borneo state. (Mindanao Examiner)