Correct Filipinos' distorted view of Sabah: Yong

KOTA KINABALU - Malaysia has to launch a campaign to demolish once and for all the Philippine view that they have a claim on Sabah, according to former Chief Minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee.

The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President said it is been long overdue for Sabahans, as Malaysians, to insist that Malaysia reset the relationship with the Philippines, to leverage and pressure the Philippines government to cease their support for their "Sabah Claim" campaign.

"We should launch our own campaign to demolish the Philippines view that they have a claim on Sabah; starting with the historical fact that Brunei never did cede North Borneo to Sulu.

"Brunei had instead ceded North Borneo (present day Sabah) to Alfred Dent and Overbeck in December 1877 before the January 1878 agreement between Dent and Overbeck with Sulu," he said.

He said as further proof that Brunei never ceded North Borneo to Sulu, there are accounts that Brunei had repelled earlier attempts by the Sulu Sultan to take over North Borneo.

Yong also drew attention to reports of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) teaming up with the extremist ISIS and the Abu Sayyaf bandits together with the self-styled Sulu Sultan family as a serious cause for concern.

"At the same time, the Philippines tolerates, perhaps even encourages, armed groups in their territory that pose a direct security threat to Sabah.

"The MNLF, Abu Sayyaf and the newcomer ISIS had previously been fighting each over territory and power, countless factions of the Kiram family had also been rivals for the so-called 'Sultanate', but combined together, these armed groups pose a perfect storm brewing at our eastern border," he said.

He said the security threat coming from the Southern Philippines is aggravated by their mindset that Sabah belongs to them (the Philippines) and hence they have a legitimacy to be in Sabah.

"What is Malaysia doing about this threat? What is the Sabah State Security Committee doing about it?" he asked.

He said the proliferation of American-made weapons in the Philippines, and the suspected sale of weapons and ammunitions by rouge elements in the Philippine military to the armed groups, make it a security nightmare for Sabah.

- Daily Express