ZAMBOANGA CITY - A two-week standoff between a group of
Filipino Muslims and Malaysian security officials over territory on the
oil-rich island of Borneo highlights the lack of consensus surrounding last
year's peace agreement between the Philippine government and the rebel Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
On February 12, an estimated 180
Filipinos referring to themselves as the "Sultanate's Royal Security
Forces" arrived by boat from the southern Philippines on Lahad Datu, a
remote part of Sabah state in northeastern Malaysia, to assert a centuries-old
claim to the area by the Sultanate of Sulu.
The lightly armed group is now
squared off with Malaysian security forces while both governments scramble for
a peaceful resolution to the situation. Malaysian police forces have declared a
series of deadlines for the group to leave the area but each has passed without
an armed crackdown. On Monday, the group rebuffed Manila's offer to escort them
back to the Philippines on a naval vessel.
The Sultanate of Sulu ruled the
contested area in Sabah for centuries before it was transferred by British
colonialists to Malaysia in 1963. At the time the Philippines contested the
transfer, claiming that the British North Borneo Company leased rather than
purchased the eastern part of Sabah from the sultanate and thus did not possess
the authority to transfer ownership to Malaysia.
Kuala Lumpur continues to make
modest "cession" payments to the heirs of the sultanate, in apparent
recognition of the territory's contested absorption. Despite receipt of those
payments, reigning Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III issued a decree on November 1,
2012 mandating his followers and royal security forces to travel to and settle
peacefully in Sabah.
For decades, Sulu Sultan Jamalul
Kiram III has called to no avail on Philippine governments, including incumbent
President Benigno Aquino's administration, to support his sultanate's
historical claim to Sabah. The sultan's royal order to his followers was issued
just two weeks after the signing of the provisional Framework Agreement for
Bangsamoro between the government and MILF rebels to create a new autonomous
region on the southern island of Mindanao.
Kiram, who reigns over an
archipelago situated at the remote southernmost tip of the Philippines, has
complained he was excluded from the MILF negotiations. Presidential spokesman
Edwin Lacierda has countered by noting that Karim attended the official signing
ceremony of the agreement. "It is unfortunate that he's complaining only
now, " Lacierda said.
MILF leaders have declined to
comment on Kiram's royal order to occupy Sabah, saying only without elaborating
that it is a "very sensitive" issue. Some analysts believe that
Mindanao's long and debilitating armed conflict will not be wholly resolved as
long as there remain pockets of disgruntled armed groups.
Julkipli Wadi, head of the
University of the Philippines' Islamic Studies department, said that the
sultanate's claim to Sabah is at the heart of the wider conflict in Mindanao.
Both the MILF and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) trace their rebel
beginnings to the Philippine government's push in the late 1960s to reclaim
Sabah.
Their rebellion was sparked by
the massacre of an estimated 150 ethnic Moro Muslims from Sulu who were trained
in late 1967 by the Philippine military to undertake Operation Merdeka, a
clandestine effort to foment instability among non-Malay groups in Sabah in
advance of an invasion. The recruits eventually balked at the prospect of
killing fellow Muslims in Sabah and were massacred when they demanded to return
to Sulu.
A group of ethnic Moro Muslim
intellectuals led by Nur Misuari later formed the MNLF and commenced an armed
struggle against Manila's rule in response to the military's betrayal and
brutality of fellow Moros. The MILF broke away from the MNLF in 1977 after the
group's leaders accepted a government offer of semi-autonomy over the
territories it controlled in a deal brokered by Libya.
"Some claim the root causes
of Mindanao conflict are poverty, self-determination and ideology but if we are
to examine the conflict closely, the root cause of the Mindanao conflict is the
Sabah claim issue," Wadi said.
Aquino has sided publicly with
Malaysia on the issue, which has strained bilateral relations already vexed by
the frequent deportation of undocumented Filipinos based in Sabah. To defuse
the situation, Aquino sent representatives to Kiram requesting that he call
back his people.
"It must be clear to you
that this small group of people will not succeed in addressing your grievances,
and that there is no way that force can achieve your aims," Aquino said in
a public statement on Tuesday.
He further warned the heirs of
the sultanate that they could face tax evasion charges for receiving a token
annual rent of US$1,500 from Malaysia in cessation money. "They could be
arrested if a warrant is issued by the court for non-payment of taxes,"
Aquino said.
Kiram has responded defiantly by
saying he is willing to face all of the threatened charges.
At the same time, the incident
has stoked the passions of certain nationalistic Filipino lawmakers. Party list
congressman Sherwin Tugna recently called on the government to take a stand on
the sultanate's claim to Sabah, likening the situation to Manila's territorial
conflicts with China in the South China Sea. Last year's standoff between
Filipino and Chinese vessels over the Scarborough Shoal sparked hitherto unseen
waves of territorial nationalism in the Philippines.
It still seems doubtful that the
Sulu sultanate's claim to territory in Sabah will galvanize a similar
grassroots response. But the incident has underscored the fragility and lack of
consensus behind last year's peace deal with the MILF. The government and MILF
are still discussing implementing mechanisms of the peace agreement, including
the potential deal breaker of under what conditions the MILF would be willing
to decommission their arms.
Two armed groups, the Sulu-based
Abu Sayyaf and central Mindanao-based Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, have
rejected the agreement and continue to defy the government's authority. If the
grievances of the Sultanate's Royal Security Forces are unaddressed, or the group
is martyred in an armed crackdown, they could emerge as a new third armed group
bent on undermining the MILF's peace deal.
Several analysts and activists
believe that the conflict in Mindanao cannot be resolved unless all
stakeholders are represented. "How can we achieve peace and development in
Mindanao when Mindanaoans are not equally represented in the negotiating
panel?" said Rolly Pelinggon, national convener for Mindanaoans for
Mindanao, a people's organization lobbying for more equitable distribution of
state programs and projects in the region.
Noel T Tarrazona
Noel T Tarrazona, MPA, is a permanent resident (immigrant) of Vancouver,
Canada. He is presently in Mindanao doing development work. He is also a
teaching faculty member of the Universidad de Zamboanga Master of Public
Administration Program.
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Health care and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN 's area. We are currently changing the platform of www.yourvietnamexpert.com, if any request, please, contact directly Dr Christian SIODMAK, business strategist, owner and CEO of SBC at christian.siodmak@gmail.com. Many thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment