MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III’s order to Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram’s men in Sabah to “surrender now with no conditions” is “not acceptable”.
“All they know how to say is surrender, surrender. Why should we surrender in our own home? They (his followers now in Sabah) are not doing anything bad in their own home),” the elder Kiram said in Filipino.
Kiram’s daughter, Jacel, said the President’s surrender order was “not acceptable.”
The aging and ailing sultan appeared briefly with action movie star Robin Padilla before dozens of journalists holed up in his home in Taguig City.
Jacel Kiram contradicted Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras’ claim that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was in “direct contact” with her family Friday night.
She said someone who claimed to represent the justice secretary had contacted them, demanding a “categorical statement” from the sultan ordering his followers to come home without any conditions.
She said previous emissaries tried to impose their terms on them.
“Dapat kasi negotiations, dapat hindi dinidikta [What’s needed is negotiation, not dictation],” she said.
“There was never any option, no option was given but to surrender,” she added.
Jacel also disputed Almendras’ claim that the government had done everything to peacefully resolve the standoff.
She said the standoff would continue until the three parties—the Sultanate and the Philippine and Malaysian governments—sit down to discuss the Sabah ownership issue.
By Dona Z. Pazzibugan - Phil Daily Inquirer
Own home? Since when? We the Orang Asal Sabah has the last say who Sabah belongs to. We have never heard our fore-fathers that Sabah belongs to the Sultan of Sulu. Not an inch will we give this beloved land to those that we have never heard before. We have been living here in the heart of Sabah where our great great great grand fathers have toiled and developed for generations, and here came a man claiming that our Sabah belongs to him and we the original people arehis subjects? Come on. You can tell this to the British and others who had brokered our land but we are not giving an inch to any of you greedy outsiders
ReplyDeleteSurely what he's doing is illegal? Shouldn't he and his gang be locked up forever?
ReplyDeleteSabah is for Sabahans...
ReplyDeleteEnd of discussion
There is no record of Lahad Datu as having the same stature as Jolo, and even today its claim to (small) fame is being the “base” of the Borneo Child Aid Society and a palm oil industrial cluster. And it is definitely no Bud Dajo, that village where hundreds of defiant Tausug—men, women and children—died fighting the Americans (a feat that is now part of the lore of struggle of the Bangsamoro).
ReplyDeleteMoreover, mustering 100 people in the Mindanao war zone is not really unusual. The clan wars (rido) that Asia Foundation has amazingly tracked could easily involve family armies that can run in the hundreds. What is sadly noticeable about the Lahad Datu occupation is how much the Sulu Sultanate has really diminished in name: the Kirams could only muster a force of 100! Even Umbra Kato, a renegade commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), has more men under his command.
ReplyDeleteBut still, why do it? And how could a doddering authority still convince 100 men to bring out their motley arms and dare challenge a much superior force?
ReplyDeleteAnyone honestly curious and concerned about what is happening “down south” these days may wish to purchase a recent book put out by the Ateneo de Manila University Press. Arli Nimmo’s “A Very Far Place: Tales of Tawi-Tawi” is about his long sojourn as a graduate student in this wonderfully distinct place of hundreds of islands and islets. He writes about communities whose notions of boundary are antipodal to how the rest of the country understands the term.
ReplyDeleteWhere Manila and Kuala Lumpur classify residents of Tawi-Tawi and neighboring Sabah as “Filipinos” and “Malaysians,” respectively, the inhabitants see these official tags as skin-deep and their utility limited (to be brought up only during elections and when they pass official immigration posts). Instead of these “modern” categories, they are comfortable with how they really call themselves—Tausug, Sama Dilaut, Sama Delaya, Kazadan, etc. These are identities that persist and to which a new layer—citizenship—would be added.
ReplyDeleteHence, where Manila and Kuala Lumpur see Tawi-Tawi as “a far distant place,” the communities in these places (if we add Borneo) regard their location as one of many nodal points of a maritime trading network that predates as well as transcends the constricting official national territories. Theirs are places that are regional in outlook, a fact often glossed over.
ReplyDeleteThe sultanate outlasted the Spanish colonialists and sought a treaty with the British commercial syndicate that was running North Borneo (a corporation) as a way of reinforcing its position. But in so doing, the Sulu Sultanate weakened itself, such that by the time the Americans came Jamalul Kiram had signed a treaty with British North Borneo, ceding parts of his domain in exchange for an annual subsidy of $5,000. The Americans added to the predicament with yet another treaty signed by a middle-ranking officer (no worth to Manila or the US War Department) and the Sultan of Sulu.
ReplyDeleteAll this may be a series of setbacks, but the series of retreats that considerably reduced the sultanate’s domain was understood not in national terms. The sultan never saw himself as Filipino. He lived in Sulu, but his other residence—during the first decade of American rule—was in Singapore, one of the many trading ports where he used to conduct business. So, it is a mistake for current-day commentators to insist that this Sabah claim was a rightful claim of the Sulu Sultanate as a Filipino entity.
ReplyDeleteIt never was. Well, until the sultan’s heir and relatives realized that their Southeast Asian world had completely disappeared as the various colonial powers consolidated their territorial stakes in the region. With Singapore closed, Borneo under British mercantile regulation and the Americans and their Filipino allies adamant in keeping Muslim Mindanao a formal part of the Philippine geo-body, there was no other option but to become Filipino.
ReplyDeleteIn short, the Sulu Sultanate of today is not the same as it was over 100 years ago. Then, it was a Southeast Asian entity; today, it is a Filipino caricature of its old self, a museum piece that national historians and ideologues would show to the public as yet another evidence of the unstoppable march of national (and modern) unity.
ReplyDeletekesultanan Sulu tak wujud lagi, Kiram harus terima hakikat ini.
ReplyDeletetiada yang iktiraf kau sebagai sultan.
ReplyDeletehetikan pencerobohan, kekalkan keamanan
ReplyDelete