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Comment by 誰還記得北婆羅州？ on July 7, 2014 at 11:16am

Yong Teck Lee: What Sabah must do to regain upper hand

KOTA KINABALU: It is crucial for .Malaysia to reset its relations with the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) with a view to provide security and peace in Sabah as was clearly promised during the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

Former Chief Minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee (pic) said Malaysia must show serious political will and deploy overwhelming resources to regain the upper hand at the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (Esszone) or else it will lose more than just prestige.

"Failure is not an option. For Malaysia," said the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President in a statement, Friday.

Yong claimed Malaysia was paying the price for decades of neglect in bolstering its defenses; choosing instead to conveniently blame the long coast lines and pump boats.

The launch of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) in March last year "at last" gave some hope but the seven battalions promised are still nowhere to be seen.

"Esscom's internal problems have mutated into a rotating command between army and police, and Esscom is still talking and doing census like they are in the dark on what the real problem is," he said.

The MNLF, heading the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) bordering Sabah, would have been Malaysia's best partner in combating cross-border crimes and terrorists, he said.

"But Malaysia burned the bridge to MNLF when Malaysia sent MNLF leader Nur Misuari back to his enemies at Manila instead of to a third country such as a member of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference) of which the MNLF is an official observer.

"With Nur Misauri back in their custody, the Philippines not only withdrew charges of rebellion against him but even courted him to contest under the banner of Kampi Party, the ruling government led by President Gloria Arroyo, Misuari's captors!

"There is reason to believe that the Philippines was doing a 'blowback' against Malaysia by turning the MNLF against Malaysia," he said.

As for the recent peace agreement between the Philippines Republic and the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front), there was little cause for Sabah to celebrate because the areas of operations of the MILF do not border Sabah.

The MILF is active mainly in the eastern and central parts of Mindanao and not the Sulu islands bordering Sabah.

In this respect, Yong said Malaysian authorities were losing the upper hand in their war to combat cross-border terrorists (aka kidnappers) and so-called Sulu intruders because the authorities have lost the confidence of the local people and lost their prestige as a much more superior force.

"The repeated humiliations inflicted on the authorities at the hands of kidnappers who struck ever closer and closer to army and police bases, the 'soldiers-shoot-soldiers' incident outside a Lahad Datu pub where Indonesian GROs ply, the admissions of inside job and corruption' amongst our security personnel, the unsolved spate of shootings at 46 premises in Kota Kinabalu and the flimsy explanations by the military and police top brass have made them a laughing stock," Yong contended.

'Filipino maps continue to give hope that Sabah is theirs'

He said that as far as Esscom is concerned, the problem was the blowback of Malaysia's policies, neglect and negligence in dealings with the Philippines, their Sabah Claim and underestimating the willpower of the Sulu people.

The Sulu people, also called Bangsa Moro, have waged wars against the mighty Spanish for 400 years, against superpower Americans for another 50 years and against the Philippines Republic for the last 50 years.

"So Esscom to them is just a nuisance," he said. "Just because the Sabah Claim has absolutely no legal basis at all Malaysia has chosen to ignore the many Filipino maps that include Sabah albeit in a different colour; and to brush aside the sentiments of Suluks that this land called North Borneo is part of their Sulu Sultanate.

"Philippines' maps continue to instill a sense of hope among young Filipinos that their 'Sabah Claim' will become reality some day in the future, and in the meantime take advantage of the skewed immigration policy of Malaysia. Malaysia will be saddled with this 'Sabah-Sulu' issue over the long haul

"Those who suffer are Sabahans while at stake is the sovereignty of Malaysia as a nation," he said.

Yong said it was a common knowledge that the weapons and ammunitions used by the armed groups like Abu Sayyaf and kidnap gangs are "Made in America", and partly sold by elements of the Philippines military and police to these gangs.

"Kidnap For Ransom (KER) is a daily occurrence in the Philippines with their own security forces being implicated.

"The Sulu sea area is a lawless region with a thriving drug and small arms trade. The organisation most capable of enforcing law and order in this region is not the corrupt, inefficient and asset-starved Philippine security forces. It is the MNLF," he said

He said MNLF forces have been successfully deployed against the Abu Sayyaf. "Some people got confused between the various groups in the Southern Philippines. For instance, just after the Sulu intrusion at Lahad Datu in February last year, social media was awash with a photo of MNLF leader Nur Misuari surrounded with hundreds of heavily armed fighters, suggesting that this was the impending invasion force to attack Sabah," he said.

In fact, that was an old photo, found in the Internet, of a massing of MNLF troops before their assault against the Abu Sayyaf in the Sulu area, he said.

Yong was not convinced that Nur Misuari or the MNLF were involved in the kidnappings in Sabah. " To put it bluntly, if the MNLF as a whole were involved, then the scale and intensity of these attacks would not be just at Tanduo, Lahad Datu or a few kidnappings. Surely, our security intelligence services know this.

"The kidnap gangs are simply bandits who know their way around better than our outstation security forces who, with due respect, eagerly look forward to be posted home," he said.

05/07/2014 Daily Express

Comment by 鮮拿哥 on June 12, 2013 at 4:01pm

林大刀：沙巴領土爭執的羅生門

菲律賓蘇祿180名武裝份子入侵沙巴拿篤（Lahad Datu）事件，僵持了長達23天，終於在本周五演變成武裝沖突；上了國際新聞頭條，也為馬來西亞即將舉行的第13屆全國大選平添變數。

耐人尋味的是，這批菲律賓武裝份子入侵馬來西亞領土這麼多天，為什麼我國政府能夠如此寬待他們？沙巴的海岸線長期有大批軍警尋防，為什麼這些武裝份子可以輕 易闖過警戒線上岸？還有還有，他們宣稱來自蘇祿，是蘇祿蘇丹王國（Sultanate of Sulu)的部隊，而沙巴原本是蘇祿的領土，現在是要來索還領土的；為什麼大馬政府直到今天都沒有針對這點進行反駁？

明明是自己國家的領土，主權問題根本不存在，為什麼面對蘇祿蘇丹的索土要求，卻始終沒有義正詞嚴的加以駁斥？

過去多年來，馬來西亞面對印尼和菲律賓多次公開索討沙巴的問題，從1963年馬來西亞成立以來，這問題就一直沒有停止過。好不容易通過外交途徑，將領土爭議問題擱置了，現在忽然又冒出一個蘇祿蘇丹王國來伸手，看得馬來西亞人民心中蠻不是滋味。

我們馬來西亞的歷史，對於沙巴的記載可說非常貧乏；這大概就是無法駁斥蘇祿蘇丹的原因吧？

史上，沙巴和菲律賓南部的一些島嶼，是屬於一個叫著蘇祿王朝的穆斯林領地，所以他們的神是“真主”或“阿拉”，宗教師教。後來，因為殖民地統治的關係，菲律賓南部島嶼歸了西班牙成為他們的殖民地；沙巴成了英國殖民地。

根據菲律賓的歷史文獻，蘇祿蘇丹王國是於1450年前後建國，領土一度橫跨菲律賓、馬來西亞的部分地區，現已名存實亡。但菲國媒體報導，馬來西亞每年還支付 5300令吉（約新臺幣5萬636元）予蘇祿蘇丹，作為沙巴領土的租金。據說是當年英國殖民地政府所簽訂的租地合約規定的。

這是菲律賓單方面的《歷史記載》，大馬是不是真如所言，每年還在支付5300令吉（一個沙巴州只值得5300令吉？）相信政府不可能不清楚；為什麼不澄清？

事實上，就算是真的，那也是歷史了。1963年，當沙巴全民同意加入馬來西亞大家庭的那一刻起，沙巴就不再跟蘇祿王國有任何關系。蘇祿蘇丹這次的舉動，完全沒有正當性，菲律賓也公開表示不支持，限令他們撤出沙巴回國。只是蘇祿武裝份子賴死不走罷了。

因此，當期限到了還不走，大馬軍警決定以武力驅趕、圍剿；無論在情在理在法，都是站得住腳的。

可是，偏偏在這個節骨眼上，前沙巴州首席部長丹斯里哈里斯卻自作聰明，提出一個非常沒有智慧的建議。他建議大馬政府給予蘇祿蘇丹2億令吉賠償金，作為永久性解決索取沙巴土地課題。

他說：“我懇求聯邦政府考慮一勞永逸的方案，解決索土問題，同時每年付錢給蘇祿蘇丹。”

他說，他已致函予內政部長拿督斯里希山慕丁，5000萬令吉是給予蘇祿蘇丹後裔，其餘1億5000萬令吉是在棉蘭佬進行類似聯邦土地發展局的土地墾殖計劃。

這個哈里斯是不是腦袋生草了？如果聯邦政府真的這樣做，豈不是自打嘴巴？將蘇祿蘇丹的索土要求合理化了？

這麼做，形同承認沙巴確實是屬於蘇祿的領土。而蘇祿是屬於菲律賓的，這麼一來，菲律賓就可能更加振振有詞，利用這筆賠償金和文件作為最有力的武器，通過聯合國正式向馬來西亞索取整個沙巴州了！（收藏自二零一三年三月二日 光華日報）