This dyad belongs to the conflict Malaysia: Sabah

Summary of conflict Malaysia: Sabah

The Sultanate of Sulu has a historical claim to the Sabah area in present-day Malaysia, originating from the 17th century when the territory was given to the Sultanate of Sulu from the Sultan of Brunei. Following a business deal with a British company in the 19th century, the UK acquired control of Sabah and after World War II they handed Sabah over to Malaysia. The Philippine government, on behalf of the Sultanate of Sulu, has continued to claim the territory and the Sultanate has on several occasions reaffirmed its aim to regain control of the territory.

In 2013, a force called Royal Soldiers of Sulu Sultanate led by Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram arrived by boat in Sabah from the Philippines. A three-week standoff followed during which Malaysia tried to convince the Sulu force to leave the area. However, on 1 March shooting erupted and after a month of clashes almost 70 people had been killed. When the Sultan died in October, the group vowed to continue to claim Sabah only through diplomatic and legal means.

Historical background – The Sultanate of Sulu

The Sultanate of Sulu was founded in the early part of the 15th century, when Sayyid Abu Bakr arrived at Sulu Island and established himself as the First Sultan of Sulu. In 1658, the Sultanate of Sulu acquired control of the territory of Sabah (North Borneo) in present-day Malaysia. Sulu Sultanate assisted Brunei in fighting off a rebellion and Sabah was subsequently given to the Sultanate of Sulu from the Sultan of Brunei as a gift.

In 1878, the Sultan of Sulu agreed to transfer his rights in North Borneo to representatives of the UK, in return for an annual rent of 5000 ringgit. The agreement was confirmed in 1903 and the annual payment was increased to 5300 ringgit. In 1888 North Borneo became a British protectorate and in 1946 it became a British Crown Colony. According to the Sultanate they signed a contract with a British company which was allowed to establish its business in the Sultanate’s territory.

Without properly informing the Sultanate, the British company then transferred the lease contract to the British government, which after World War II handed Sabah over to Malaysia after a plebiscite. The people of Sabah were asked if they preferred Sabah staying on as a member of the Federation of Malaysia or if they wanted to join the Sultanate of Sulu. The UK was still in control of Malaysia and the plebiscite yielded a positive result in favour of incorporating Sabah into Malaysia.

The claim to Sabah

In 1962 the Philippines adopted a resolution stating their claim to Sabah, based on the Sultanate of Sulu’s historical ownership of the territory. However, Malaysia rejected the Philippine claim and Sabah was federated into Malaysia when the country became independent in 1963.

The Sultanate had in 1962 enacted a resolution giving the Philippine government the right to speak on their behalf regarding the Sabah issue. The resolution stated that should the government fail to recover Sabah the Sultan of Sulu “shall be free to assert his sovereignty over Sabah by other means available to all sovereign claimants”.

In 1989, the Philippine government wanted to normalize its relations with their Malaysian counterparts, and the President stated that the Philippines would drop their claim over Sabah. This angered the Sultan who said that only the Sultanate of Sulu could drop the claim, and threatened to bring the issue before the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Speaking before the Philippine Senate, the Sultan said that the Sultanate of Sulu had retracted the Philippine government’s right to speak on their behalf and that the resolution from 1962 was revoked. The president’s will to drop the claim was not supported by the Senate, however, and several attempts to formally drop the claim were made in the following years.

Manila’s wish to abandon their claim over Sabah led different representatives of the Sultanate of Sulu to emphasize their historical right to the territory and that they aimed to regain control of what they considered as rightfully theirs. In 1993, Sultan Jamalul Kiram threatened to go to war against Malaysia if they did not recognize the Sultanate of Sulu’s ownership of Sabah and in 1994, the Sulu crown prince Esmail Kiram stated that “we will retrieve the territory which is rightfully ours even if it shall cost our lives and all our fortunes”.

After reports of mistreatment by Malaysian authorities of Filipino deportees in 2002, the sultan Jamalul Kiram III urged the Philippine government to revive its claim on Sabah. The Sultanate of Sulu has no legal standing in the UN and needs a sovereign state to speak for them. The Sultan stated that if the Philippines did not support their cause, they would do whatever they could to reclaim the territory. They also wanted Malaysia to increase the rent on Sabah from 5300 ringit to 800 million ringit, based on Sabah’s gross national income of the past 40 years.

The incompatibility was again stated in 2007 and in 2008, when members of the Sultanate of Sulu organized demonstrations, waved the flag of the Sultanate of Sulu and stated that they wanted to break away from the Philippines and gain independence of the Sultanate.

The Sabah standoff in 2013

In November 2012, Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III issued a royal decree giving his brother Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram the title of crown prince and the task of going to Sabah to claim the Sultanate’s ancestral right to the territory. The decision to occupy Sabah came shortly after the Philippine government and the rebel group MILF signed the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (For more information see the conflict over Mindanao in the Philippines) in October 2012. The Sultanate of Sulu felt left out in the peace process and thought that they were betrayed, being the rightful owners to the Sulu archipelago and Sabah. A spokesman later said “They talk to everybody except to the group that they should really talk with for lasting peace in Mindanao”.

On 11 February 2013, the Sultanate of Sulu sent a 235-strong force to Sabah by boat from Tawi-Tawi in the Philipinnes. The force, calling themselves the Royal Soldiers of Sulu Sultanate, was led by Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram. The group stated that their claim to Sabah was an “integral and essential” aspect of any peace agreement on Mindanao, and that they had decided to act on their own given that the Philippine government had not taken their interests into account. Rajah Mudah said that his group was “returning home” in peace, and that he was not there to wage war. He said ““We want to live in our place. Sabah is our territory, as it is part of the ancestral domain of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo”.

When Rajah Mudah and his followers arrived in Lahad Datu in Sabah they were surrounded by Malaysian security forces, forming a tight ring around the village of Tunduao where the group was holed up. At first, the Malaysian authorities negotiated with the Sultanate of Sulu, giving them a deadline to leave Sabah peacefully and return to the Philippines. However, the Sultanate of Sulu refused to withdraw and Sultan Jamalul Kiram stated, during a press conference 10 days after the occupation started, that his group was willing to die for its cause, “My final, final, final stand, which does not only come from me, but from those who are there (Sabah), they said, do or die”. Although the group did not intend to instigate violence, they would defend themselves and their aspirations to the death if provoked by the Malaysian forces. The deadline for the Sulu forces to leave Sabah was extended several times and the Philippines sent Navy ships to pick up the Sulu followers. The Philippines also tried to talk to the Sultan, promising to bring the Sabah claim to the UN, in order to find a peaceful solution to the standoff.

March 2013 – fighting over Sabah

On 1 March 2013, when the standoff had been ongoing for almost three weeks, violence erupted. The Malaysian forces said that they had not fired a single shot but were fired upon by the rebels, while the Sultanate forces said they had been attacked by Malaysian snipers. The Malaysian Prime Minister declared his patience had run out and that he had given the Malaysian forces the mandate to take any action against the Sultanate forces. By the end of the day 15 people had been killed including two Malaysian soldiers killed in a mortar attack. The following day violence spread to nearby areas when the Sulu forces ambushed Malaysian police in Simunul village, Semporna town, killing at least six.

Malaysia reinforced their military presence in the region and on 5 March, they launched an all-out offensive against the Sultanate of Sulu, using fighter jets to quell the rebellion. Two days later, the Sulu forces offered a unilateral ceasefire but the Malaysian Prime Minister said “we want the militants to unconditionally surrender and hand over their weapons" and that his forces would continue to target the Sulu troops “for as long as it takes to eliminate them”. Fighting continued and by the end of March, nearly 70 people had been killed in Sabah.

Sporadic attacks continued for several months, but when Sultan Jamalul Kiram III died in October his successor Esmail Kiram II said that their claims to Sabah would continue, but only through diplomatic and legal means.