KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia’s success in overcoming the frivolous attempts by the so-called heirs of the defunct sultanate of Sulu must be followed by the Malaysian Government doing its utmost to get the Philippines Government to set up a consulate in Sabah, said ex-Chief Minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee.
He said the good news brought relief to the people of Sabah as it seems that the efforts of the Sulu claimants have backfired on them and their financial backers.
“To move the success forward and to once and for all put a definite end to the Philippines/Sulu claim to Sabah, the Malaysian Government must do its utmost in getting the Philippines government to set up a consulate in Sabah.
“By setting up a Philippines consulate in Sabah, the Philippines would be telling its own people in the Philippines to forget about their fanciful claim to Sabah.
Sabah was never owned or ruled by Sulu or the Philippines at any time in the history of Sulu or the Philippines.
The so-called grant of 22 January 1878 is itself void because of a preceding grant between Brunei and Overbeck/Dent on 29 December 1877,” he said.
Yong, who is also President of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), said there is also absolutely no necessity to put this claim to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) because Malaysia already defeated the attempt of the Philippines to bring their claim to the ICJ via the Pulau Ligitan/Sipadan case in 2001.
“The ICJ had ruled that the Philippines failed to show that it has ‘an interest of a legal nature’ on the Ligitan/Sipadan case.
The Philippines had attempted to intervene in the Ligitan/Sipadan case between Malaysia and Indonesia by saying they (Philippines) owned the Ligitan/Sipadan islands by virtue of their claim on Sabah.
“That adventure by the Philippines was thrown out by the ICJ (in 2001). There is ample documentary evidence to show that neither the now defunct Sulu Sultanate nor the Republic of Philippines has ever ruled any part of North Borneo (now Sabah),” he said.
Yong said the Malaysian Government must show to the Philippines/Sulu people that it is also in their own interests to stop their futile behaviour of claiming Sabah.
“Let the good neighbourly win-win relationship between Malaysian Sabah and Philippines Bangsamoro prosper together in peace. “Let those citizens of the Philippines who are residing in Sabah have the badly needed consular services that have been denied to them by their own government (of the Philippines Republic),” he said.
— EDITOR