Putrajaya, 13 October 2022 – This statement is to clarify and expand upon the statement made by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament & Law) in Parliament on the 6th of October 2022 in respect of the on-going arbitral dispute between the purported heirs to the defunct Sulu Sultanate and the Government of Malaysia (the ‘Sulu Claim’). The statement was in response to a question posed by YB Chan Foong Hin Member of Parliament from Kota Kinabalu.
“To clarify, my answer was in relation to whether there is any chance that Sabah could, as a result of the unlawful Paris Award, become part of the Philippines. Let me say again that this is not possible. Sabah will never be ceded to or come under the control of the Philippines, and the Federal Government stands by and will always defend the integrity of Malaysia’s territorial sovereignty,” said the Minister.
The unlawful Paris Award was handed down by arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa on the 28th February 2022 and purportedly awarded the Sulu claimants a sum of USD14.92 billion. “When I said that the Paris Award was a result of ‘tuntutan peribadi’ (a private claim) it was a statement meaning that the claim was made by private individuals (the purported heirs of the defunct Sulu Sultan) and not by the Government of the Philippines.
“Further, when I stated that the Sulu Claim and the purported Paris Award ‘tidak ada kena mengena’ (not relating to) the question ofsovereignty, that statement was in the context of territorial sovereignty that is whether or not there was a chance that Sabah could ever be handed over to the Philippines, the Minister reiterated.
The Sulu Claim is an attack on and is an infringement of Malaysia’s sovereign and economic interests abroad. The Sulu Claimants are using the arbitral process which is a private international law mechanism to attack Malaysia’s sovereign interests abroad: this is not only an abuse of process but is, an assault on Malaysia’s sovereignty and sovereign interests.
— EDITOR
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