Sabah claim and the folly of the 1915 agreement

 COMMENT by Hazlan Zakaria

 Claimant to the now defunct Sulu sultanate Jamalul Kiram III is considering requesting assistance from the United States in pressing his claim to Sabah by invoking a 1915 agreement with the superpower's then colonial government in the Philippines.

His spokesperson Abraham Idjirani said Jamalul wants to invoke the Kiram-Carpenter Agreement signed by his namesake, the real Sultan Jamalul Kiram II (left), on March 22, 1915.

As reported in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the agreement, signed between the then Sulu Sultanate and the Governor of Mindanao and Sulu Frank W Carpenter "relinquished the sultan's and his heirs' right to temporal sovereignty, tax collection and arbitration laws," over his territories.

In exchange, the English daily reported, the sultan got "an allowance, a piece of land and recognition as religious leader".

However, the article posited that the agreement did not cover the territory of North Borneo, which the sultanate claimed to have only leased to the British North Borneo Company.

It is puzzling how, in order to assert the so called territorial rights that he allegedly inherited from the Sulu sultanate, which he may or may not be heir to, Jamalul chose to invoke the very agreement that laid low the Muslim royal family and ceded all their temporal authority to an infidel government.

Samuel K Tan in his book The History of The Philippines states:

"It was in Mindanao the challenge to American rule lasted until 1913 when Sulu finally yielded after the massacre of Bud Bagsak for which John J (Black Jack) Pershing (right) earned a name in American military history and subsequently earned a promotion ahead of his superiors.

"On March 22, 1915, Sultan Jamalul Kiram II signed the Kiram-Carpenter Agreement, relinquishing political authority over his subjects."

A document of capitulation

It is clear that the Kiram-Carpenter agreement was not a defence pact or alliance but instead a document of capitulation, as Jamalul Kiram II had no choice after his Moro forces were massacred in various pitched battles with the US occupation forces.

One of the more memorable of the massacres that forced the sultan to capitulate was the Battle of Bud Bagsak, in which the Americans under Pershing's command killed more than 500 fighters in a fortified Moro fortress.

The battles to put down the Moro upsiring made Pershing famous as well as was the proving ground of the ubiquitous large calibre M1911 Colt .45 automatic sidearm, used by the American forces for its "man-stoping" ability to put down machete wielding Moro warriors on the "Amuk" with a single shot.

The claim by Jamalul III may perhaps not hold water, on his own merits or lack thereof.

As a Kiram family insider speaking to national new agency Bernama pointed out, while Jamalul is part of their clan, he is not one of the nine legally recognised heirs to the Sulu sultanate, hence he was labelled a "fake" Sulu sultan.

Real heirs do not recognise Jamalul

And as Malaysiakini affiliate KiniTV found out from another Sulu heir, even among the nine legal heirs, no clear succession has been agreed as to who is the current sultan, or sultanah for that matter, as some heirs are female.

But it is to these recognised heirs that the Malaysian government continues to pay the token cessation fee inherited from the British, and initially set when the then recognised Sulu sultan ceded Sabah to the British merchant company.

Insiders said the real heirs thus do not recognise Jamalul III as the sultan and view his incursion into Sabah with less than friendly eyes.

Indeed with the recognition by both Manila and the Malaysian government that Kiram's followers in Sabah have committed "terroristic acts", they can be now labelled as terror-actors.

It is more rightly so for Malaysia to invoke the US declared War on Terror and ask for assistance from the world power to rid itself of these armed intruders in ourr midst.

It was what Manila did when it was fighting the Suluks' Moro insurgency themselves not so long ago, when they too asked for US help in order to fight off the terrorists in their midst.

Filipinos, too, bombed and gunned them

Which of course brings forth another irony to the fore. As the supposedly weeping Filipinos demonstrate in front of the Malaysian Embassy in Manila to express anger over the Malaysian security forces' crackdown on the armed intruders, it should be remembered that not long ago, the Filipino guns and bombs and bullets were doing the same thing.

One wonders, did they then shed a tear or demonstrate at Malacanang Palace?

Whatever the case, one wonders why Jamalul is quite proudly extolling the folly of his ancestor, and his own folly in the armed foray into Sabah.

More importantly, when the US ceded back authority over the Philippines to the locals after it gained independence, the current civil government of the land inherited all the agreements, assigns and responsibilities of the US colonial government.

As the Kiram-Carpenter Agreement was between the Sulu sultanate and the occupying administration, so has the agreement now should logically transferred to the Philippine government.

The self-declared sultan, and any heir of the Kirams for that matter, are under the de facto rule of Manila.

As such, I doubt invoking the agreement would change Manila's stand, as it had already issued orders for Jamalul to stand down and recall his followers.

HAZLAN ZAKARIA is a member of the Malaysiakini team.