Lahad Datu: Is there a solution?

By bringing the battles right to the heart of our towns, they have nothing to lose; but not us, our terrified civilians will become refugees and our developments devastated.

COMMENT

This is a requested sequel to my previous article titled “To whom does Sabah belong?” which attracted a high number of responses and shares in cyber space and triggering a unique volume of debate among netizens.

In the current piece, I will unmask the mindset of most Malaysian commentators before imparting more of my findings about the Lahad Datu debacle.

Firstly: To the families of policemen who died in the line of duty, my condolences here are as heartfelt and deep as those of mine for the families of innocent citizens who died in police custody including those inside motor vehicles as a result of police shootings.

Secondly: To the families of deceased Tausug warriors who had to assert their right to sovereignty with their lives, my profoundest sympathy that it has to come to such a stage as a result of the failings of my government and possibly that of yours as well. I condemn my government for our casualties and I leave it to you to rebuke yours if yours so deserve it.

By and large, not all homo sapiens are born intelligent, and the high tendency of them ending up as nincompoops rests on how he or she is brought up at home and of course that also includes the way they are educated.

Many countries in the world control the thinking of their citizens; for example, I was reliably told only a few weeks ago that the National University of Singapore does not have the subject called “Jurisprudence” for their law students; if this is true, my personal opinion is that it must have been deliberately done to prevent them from becoming lawyers who can think better.

On the other hand, Malaysians are indoctrinated from a young age with politically convenient half-truths which are spiced up with fabricated history about events that are authored by so-called historians who were never there in the first place; such brainwashing was authorised by an irresponsible government with a vicious tenacity to keep the citizens daft and executed right from primary schools up to tertiary levels.

For instance, all Malaysians read from government authorised history books believing that Sabah and Sarawak are of the same status with the remaining 11 states in West Malaysia – they are wrong!

Tunku Abdul Rahman uttered the following historical statements:

“The granting of self-government too would enable Sabah to stand on its own feet as equal with Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore.” (Sabah Times, Jesselton, Aug 30, 1963.)

Serial racists

As a result of the miserable education system, many Malaysians grew up to become full-blown serial racists and religious bigots who not only think that they are superior to other people, but also are unable to respond out of the box because they were only taught “what to think” instead of “how to think” for themselves; and worst, many Malaysians are not even aware of their own pathetic predicament much like when a shrink asks a mental patient “are you mad?” and the lunatic will always answer in the negative.

Like an orphaned lamb which grew up with a pack of wolf pups, the former mistakenly thought that it is strong and formidable like the latter when it was actually physically and psychologically compromised; such is my description of the general Malaysian public today.

It is not entirely the fault of Malaysians when many of them cannot understand basic, decent, and logical elucidation because the education system that churned them out is wanting; but if they continue to elect a bunch of clowns that is corrupted to the core to run the government which only knows how to fiddle with propaganda and figures to look good, the worst will get even worse.

While Malaysians per se are somewhat reasonable, many could not accept fact and truth particularly when they think their interests are in jeopardy; in short, they are unable to behave impartial.

For introducing the naked truth about the sovereignty of the Philippines over Sabah, a layman wrote that there is a difference between stealing something movable and stealing land – how much more preposterous can Malaysians be?

Netizens can find all the ridiculous arguments by Malaysians in the comments section of my immediate previous article in FMT; while not all Malaysians are warped in their thinking, I am sad to say more than 90% of the Malaysian comments therein are such.

Now back to the Lahad Datu skirmishes.

I still maintain that the whole episode is a sandiwara with pre-planned collateral damages thrown in. Is Najib Tun Razak planning to declare emergency, suspend the Federal Constitution, and impose martial law to delay elections which the Barisan Nasional will lose? Will this incident make the BN look more like a hero when our troops finally sweep in?

With the large number of soldiers from Peninsular Malaysia being deployed to Sabah at this time, how many tens of thousands more additional postal votes are we talking about now to bolster the chances of the BN in Sabah? What about the feelings of the 900,000 Tausug people in Sabah, how will it affect their votes?

Alternatively, has the parade now got out of control with the Sulu warriors no longer following the script?

Ridiculous suggestion

It was recorded that the Tausug people of Sulu were never colonised by any foreign powers; their warriors are war-hardened and fear nothing. A few decades ago, they were funded by Libya to fight the government of the Philippines. Was our government the one that trained, armed, and gave them safe haven? Was the same also true of the Acheh rebels in Indonesia and the Pattani separatists in Thailand?

I am unable to gauge the capabilities of our present troops to dislodge the so-called intruders, but I do worry for them and the civilians; the Tausug people never surrender and they never forgive. If their warriors are here to die fighting, they will be dead sure that many of our soldiers and civilians will follow them.

Let me now assume for a moment that the whole thing is not a conspiracy and the Malaysian government does not know how to solve it peacefully and diplomatically; should it not resign en bloc and let the people choose a new government to deal with it? The BN government does not have the authority from the rakyat to risk the lives of our troops, innocent civilians, and foreigners included.

There is another ridiculous suggestion a few days ago: when the nation was peaceful, non-Malays were sidelined or capped with a glass ceiling for promotion and rank in the police and armed forces; all of a sudden in war, Kadir Jasin said that non-Malays should now die for the country…! What kind of logic is that…?

If the Lahad Datu fiasco is real by any imagination, the federation has failed us disastrously; our comfort was all along artificial and looking back, the discredited formation of Malaysia in 1963 is now ludicrously confirmed as not only hugely insignificant but a complete flop and fatally flawed.

Malaya is enslaving Sabah and its politicians, who are not troubled by conscience, are subjugating us with foreign nationals by issuing citizenships to them and plundering our rich natural resources.

Our presence as the poorest of the poor in Malaysia is a clear indication that Sabah’s economy is not only on the retreat, but heading for world-record collapse at a speed few of us can comprehend. Malaya’s ambition is boundless; it seizes every opportunity meant for Sabah and what did our impoverished people get – terror in the end.

Just look at our infrastructure: a few new roads, a few magnificent government buildings, expensive homes for the elite; but our people are still as poor as ever on a colossal scale working day and night for a pittance. Compared with colonialism, this is much more oppressive and widespread than anything our former British colonial government was ever accused of.

Why must our government run on bribery and by notoriously corrupt pariah politicians while the police force on brutality? There is a real sense of anxiety among a lot of Sabah people that citizens do not have any real protection that we should have; fundamentally, we are now under siege, not only from Sulu gunmen but from Malaya. Why can we not have our own final say on our rights? Why must the people of Malaya insist on how we should live our lives? We are not a colony of anyone!

The people of Sabah are astonishing human beings with a limitless capacity for self-sacrifice; but today, I say: enough is enough. All Malaya politicians are hypocritical and disgraceful – well below the standards expected of decent leaders; the greatest justice for Sabah will triumph on the historic day all the Malaya-based political parties and their local running dogs are humiliatingly voted out by bold Sabahans in the 13th general election, effectively ending their dangerous and hate-driven abusive meddling in the affairs of Sabah, making us physically and financially ill.

Is there a solution?

A senior lawyer from Sandakan asked me about the Malaysia versus Indonesia case of Sipadan and Ligitan islands in which the International Court of Justice ruled that Sabah has sovereignty over the contested islands by virtue of an old legislation regulating the collection of turtle eggs ordained by the former British colonial government.

The Philippines applied to intervene as a third party in the proceedings but was disallowed because both Malaysia and Indonesia objected to it; now why? I believe both Malaysia and Indonesia will go home empty-handed because the Philippines can and will be able to establish sovereignty claims on Sabah thereby making ownership of the two islands theirs as well.

I asked him back: if in a court case, both sides of the legal team deliberately conceal evidence with the intention of misleading the judges, how legitimate is a judgment which was rendered in ignorance? His answer was “the judgment does not hold water”.

I was also asked about the Madrid Protocol signed by Germany, Britain, and Spain which contained provisions greatly distorted by lay Malaysian commentators.

If a bandit attempted to rob your house and then entered into an agreement with a second bandit in relation to the loots which may not have been taken from your house, is the agreement legal? The answer is NO because such agreement is void ab initio (from the beginning).

Readers who still think that just because certain people in Sabah of the past had chosen to form Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963, such action supersedes the sovereignty of the Philippines have complete absurd mentality. They should read what Tunku Abdul Rahman signed on July 31,1963 – Article 12 of the Manila Accord:

“The Philippines made it clear that its position on the inclusion of North Borneo in the Federation of Malaysia is subject to the final outcome of the Philippine claim to North Borneo. The Ministers took note of the Philippine claim and the right of the Philippines to continue to pursue it in accordance with international law and the principle of the pacific settlement of disputes. They agreed that the inclusion of North Borneo in the Federation of Malaysia would not prejudice either the claim or any right thereunder. Moreover, in the context of their close association, the three countries agreed to exert their best endeavours to bring the claim to a just and expeditious solution by peaceful means, such as negotiation, conciliation, arbitration, or judicial settlement as well as other peaceful means of the parties’ own choice, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations and the Bandung Declaration.”

He also signed on Aug 5, 1963 – Article 8 of the Joint Statement by the Philippines, the Federation of Malaya, and Indonesia:

“In accordance with paragraph 12 of the Manila Accord, the three Heads of Government decided to request the British Government to agree to seek a just and expeditious solution to the dispute between the British Government and the Philippine Government concerning Sabah (North Borneo) by means of negotiation, conciliation and arbitration, judicial settlement, or other peaceful means of the parties’ own choice in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations. The three Heads of Government take cognizance of the position regarding the Philippine claim to Sabah (North Borneo) after the establishment of the Federation of Malaysia as provided under paragraph 12 of the Manila Accord, that is, that the inclusion of Sabah (North Borneo) in the Federation of Malaysia does not prejudice either the claim or any right thereunder.”

Ball in our court

From the above two provisions, any lawyer worth his seasoning will tell you that the inclusion of Sabah into the formation of Malaysia is subject to the claims of the Philippines. It is therefore also crystal clear as the morning sun that the British government screwed us up blue and purple with Malaya as the accomplice.

Before I forget, former president Ferdinand Marcos did not have the authority to renounce the Philippines’ claim over Sabah as issues concerning sovereignty must be approved by both houses of their Congress.

My previous article actually spelt out in clear and unambiguous terms what to expect in the whole scenario; but how many people really understood the implications and in between the lines, the remedy?

A chief editor of a popular online news portal asked me whether there is any immediate solution to end the impasse without incurring any further casualty on both sides. My answer was a definite YES and the ball is in our court.

Before I conclude this piece, my personal view about the Sulu warriors: if this incursion is not sandiwara, how come they did not take out the communication towers and lay siege on the airport and town?

If this invasion is real, our troops and civilians are going to suffer; everything the Tausug warriors did had the hallmarks of the strategies mapped out in Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” and I suspect they also have the standard operating procedure manual of Osama Laden’s Al-Qaeda.

By bringing the battles right to the heart of our towns (Lahad Datu, Semporna, and God knows how many more), they have nothing to lose; but not us, our terrified civilians will become refugees and our developments devastated. Try finding out how many percent of our troops including the top brass actually have war experience and you will know what I mean. The Tausug warriors have declared that they are not going back and will die here; if this does not send shivers down your spine, you really need to see a neurosurgeon…

For every casualty on either side, the BN government is to be blamed and held responsible; one word best describes the whole affair: “Kiaguk”…!

(“Kiaguk” is the Suluk word for stupid used by the Tausug people.)

The writer is a retired Sabah tour operator; loves food and speed, and blogs at http://legalandprudent.blogspot.com giving no quarters. The opinions and views contained hereinabove are entirely his alone.