tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3843727205859859637.post3481074259485196518..comments2023-10-26T17:11:10.535+08:00Comments on Rightway: The former Sulu Sultanate, a foreign problem in history that became Sabah's righwayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06748606380615647290noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3843727205859859637.post-5903648188473556822013-03-03T13:59:17.158+08:002013-03-03T13:59:17.158+08:00Sultan’s descendants are really incapable of talki...Sultan’s descendants are really incapable of talking care themselves. The issue dated back to its colonization in history by the British, Japanese and American imperialism.<br /><br />Sultan’s descendants should claim the imperialists if they were capable.<br /><br />For Malaysia, the sovereignty and territorial claims of the former Sultan’s descendants are simply unacceptable. No such claims are negotiable.<br /><br />The claimants argue that the sultanate’s territory had been leased only to Britain, with no agreement on incorporation into Malaysia. But their case is inconsistent.<br /><br />Sabah, the former North Borneo, became a British protectorate from the late 19th century until it became a crown colony. It gained a brief period of independence before becoming part of the Malaysian Federation in 1963.<br /><br />By then, the Cobbold Commission had determined that a majority of people in Sabah and Sarawak favoured the formation of Malaysia. For a century the former Sultan’s descendants did not retake territory, but instead agreed to continue accepting the lease payment under the previous arrangements.<br /><br />The Philippine government, which subsumed the sultanate’s authority in the four provinces of Mindanao, also took over the role of pressing the claim to Sabah. Despite being a republic that had abandoned all royal authority, Manila continued with the claim before, during and after Malaysia’s formation.<br /><br />Although the Philippine claim has since become dormant if not extinct, Manila found it difficult to renounce it. It has become an object of nationalists eager to strike populist postures in domestic Philippine politics.righwayshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16150938067127325366noreply@blogger.com