[PANAS] Pengikut Sultan Sulu Enggan Tinggalkan Lahad Datu, Bagaimana Polis Kata Mereka Setuju Beredar? Lagi Panas...

Menurut laporan Strait Times (18/2) yang memetik berita AFP, pengikut Sultan Sulu di Filipina yang menceroboh Sabah baru-baru ini tidak akan meninggalkan negeri itu dan mahu menuntut kawasan yang dikatakan milik nenek moyang mereka. Hal ini ditegaskan oleh Sultan Jamalul Kiram.

Menurut baginda, sebanyak 400 orang termasuk 20 pengikut yang bersenjata bertegas untuk berada di kawasan yang diceroboh itu walaupun diminta beredar oleh pihak berkuasa Malaysia. 

"Mengapa kami perlu meninggalkan tanah air kami? Hakikatnya, mereka membayar sewa (kepada kami)?," kata baginda kepada pemberita di Manila. 

"Pengikut kami akan terus berada di Lahad Datu. Tiada sesiapa akan pulang ke Filipina. Sabah ialah tempat tinggal kami." katanya lagi.-DCM/ST/AFP

 Laporan Utusan Malaysia:

Kumpulan Bersenjata Setuju Berundur

[UM] LAHAD DATU 17 Feb. - Kumpulan bersenjata yang mendakwa sebagai Tentera Diraja Kesultanan Sulu yang menceroboh masuk Kampung Tanduo berhampiran Felda Sahabat 17 di sini bersetuju untuk berundur dari negara ini.

Bagaimanapun kumpulan berkenaan meminta untuk berjumpa dengan personaliti tertentu sebelum pulang ke negara asal mereka.

Pesuruhjaya Polis Sabah, Datuk Hamza Taib (gambar) berkata, pihaknya sedang berusaha membawa individu berkenaan untuk membolehkan proses pengusiran dijalankan secepat mungkin.

Beliau enggan mendedahkan personaliti berkenaan tetapi mengesahkan Sultan Sulu, Datu Esmail Datu Kiram akan ke negeri ini yang tidak diketahui tarikhnya.

"Tidak perlu saya kata lagi kerana sebahagian daripada usaha untuk mengusir kumpulan ini balik. Kita tidak buat rundingan dengan mereka lagi kerana apa yang dituntut di luar jangkauan kita," katanya kepada pemberita selepas mendengar taklimat tertutup di Kem Batalion 17 Pasukan Gerakan Am (PGA) di Felda Sahabat 16 di sini hari ini.

P/s: Mengapa Sultan Sulu membangkitkan soal sewa (rent)? Adakah Malaysia menyewa Sabah daripada Kesultanan Sulu?

Apabila "pencerobohan" ini berlaku, timbul pula soal "sewa", TM terfikir, adakah Projek IC ada kaitan dengan perjanjian dengan Kesultanan Sulu?

Siapa nak jawab?


Kemas Kini:

Apa sebenarnya yang berlaku?

Heirs of Sultan of Sulu pursue Sabah claim on their own
By Arlyn dela Cruz

  

BIZARRE BORDER DRAMA Heavily armed Malaysian policemen stand guard at a roadblock in Bakapit, about 50 kilometers from Lahad Datu in Sabah where some 100 reportedly armed Filipinos, later identified as descendants and the security forces of the Sultan of Sulu, have landed. Malaysia’s authorities say their security forces have surrounded the Sulu group. Photo courtesy of Malaysia’s The Star/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

Feeling betrayed and left out in the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu have decided to press their claim to the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah on their own.

Crown Prince Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram said in an interview with the Inquirer that the government appeared to have neglected the heirs and ignored their stand that their claim to Sabah was an “integral and essential” aspect of any peace agreement with any armed group in Mindanao.

Abraham Julpa Idjirani, secretary general and spokesperson of the Sultanate of Sulu, said the decision to show not just physical presence but actual occupation of Sabah came late last year, shortly after the Aquino administration signed a Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro with the MILF.

The standoff continued yesterday with Rajah Mudah’s claim to be under the protection of the security forces of the Sultanate of Sulu adding more mystery to the bizarre border drama.

Departure on Feb. 11

HOMECOMING Members of the Royal Security Force of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo who have traveled with Crown Prince Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram in what the descendants of the Sultan of Sulu describe as not an act of aggression against Sabah but a journey back to their homeland. Malaysian police and special forces surround the “royal army,” asking them to return home. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

“They are not interested, this government and the previous governments, so we decided to act on our own,” Rajah Mudah said.

Early on Feb. 11, Rajah Mudah and about 1,000 of his followers, including armed men from what he called “Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo” left Simunul Island in Tawi-Tawi in speedboats and headed for Sabah.

Rajah Mudah described his action as not an act of aggression but a journey back home.

“We came here in peace. We are not here to wage war. The armed men who are with me are the Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo. We will never bring war to our own territory, much less to our own people,” Rajah Mudah said.

His group landed in the village of Tunduao in Lahad Datu town in Sabah.

Surrounded
 
What happened after the landing is unclear, but reports from Kuala Lumpur on Thursday said Malaysian security forces had surrounded the Filipinos, whom they believed were a faction of Muslim rebels unhappy with a peace deal with the administration of President Aquino.

Rajah Mudah said he and his group were not arrested. He said he was communicating with Gen. Zul Kipli, head of the Special Branch of Sabah, the equivalent of the top intelligence officer in the Philippines.

He admitted, however, that he and his group were surrounded by Malaysian police and special forces.
The standoff between the Malaysian authorities and Rajah Mudah’s group has sparked one of the biggest security scares in recent years in Sabah, which is less than an hour by speedboat from the southernmost Philippine province of Tawi-Tawi.

To ascertain facts
 
Malacañang was reluctant to meddle in the reported incursion into Sabah by “100 armed Filipinos” claiming to be descendants of the Sultan of Sulu.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte indicated in a briefing for reporters in the Palace yesterday that the government was not sure about what was going on in Sabah.

THE ONCE FEUDING ROYALS UNITE The heirs of the Sultan of Sulu: (seated from left) Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram, Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, Sultan Bantilan Esmail Kiram II and (standing from left) Datu Alianapia Kiram, Datu Phugdal Kiram and Datu Baduruddin Kiram. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

She said the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur had sent a police attaché to Sabah to ascertain “what’s really happening.”

Valte said the government would provide assistance “to any Filipino abroad,” but added that on the Sabah standoff, “we would like to ascertain the facts first.”

Unaware of the situation in Lahad Datu, Philippine officials said the Filipinos were unarmed civilians who had been promised land.

Citing information from Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Valte told reporters yesterday that the Filipinos were unarmed.

But Rajah Mudah’s claim that he was surrounded by his own security forces indicated the dearth of information in the government about the move taken by the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu.

Negotiations
 
In a statement released yesterday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifa Aman had spoken to Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and assured him that the Malaysians would respect the rights of the Filipinos in the Sabah standoff.

The statement said the Malaysian government had resorted to “negotiations to encourage” the Filipinos “to leave peacefully.”

Both the Philippine military and the Malaysian military had established that the Filipinos’ activity in Sabah had no approval from the Philippine government, the DFA said.

“In this regard, we therefore urge these concerned individuals to return to their homes and families,” the DFA said.

Pretended consultation
 
Idjirani said that before the signing of the agreement, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) invited the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu to what was supposed to be a consultation on a peace deal with the MILF.

He said he was asked to give a lecture on the stand of the Sultanate of Sulu at a forum held at the University of the Philippines College of Law.

“We thought finally the government of President Aquino wanted a complete and comprehensive resolution management to the peace, security and economic problems of territories in Mindanao by consulting with us. But it was just talk,”

Idjirani said in English and Filipino.

“The framework agreement was finished without even the shadow of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo. They just pretended to consult us,” he said.

He said the government encouraged the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu to lead “peace caravans” and they complied. He showed pictures of such a caravan taken in Tawi-Tawi last year. The pictures showed members of the Kiram royal family and their followers participating in the caravan.
 
Sultanate not mentioned
 
But the next thing the heirs knew, he said, the framework agreement had been signed without any mention of the “historic and sovereign rights” of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo to territories included in the agreement.

“Until the government includes the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo, no lasting and significant peace will come to Mindanao,” Idjirani said.

“They should have seen that in the failure of the peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front of Nur Misuari,” he said.

“We thought the administration of President Aquino gave weight to ancestral and historic agreements. We were clearly wrong,” he added.

He said the sultanate’s “desire and intention” to be part of the peace process initiated by the government was expressed in a letter to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo dated April 13, 2009.

In that letter signed by Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, he said, the government was acknowledged and referred to only as an ally in the sultanate’s ancestral and historic rights over the Sulu archipelago, which includes territories covered in the preliminary peace talks between the government and the MILF.

But Arroyo’s term ended in June 2010 with no agreement being reached with the MILF.

It was the Aquino administration that would clinch a preliminary peace deal with the MILF.

Heirs united
 
Idjirani said the signing of the framework agreement with the MILF led to the unification of the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu and their decision to proceed with claiming Sabah on their own.

Idjirani said the reported differences among the heirs were never personal but involved only policy and direction.

He said the direct descendants and heirs of the Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo were Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, Sultan Bantilan Esmail Kiram III, Datu Alianapia Kiram, Datu Phugdal Kiram, Datu Baduruddin Kiram and Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram, the crown prince who was tasked to lead the 1,000-strong civilian and military force to Sabah.

The “meeting of the minds” of the Kirams happened on Nov. 11 last year in a relative’s house, Idjirani said. It was during that meeting that Sultan Jamalul issued the royal decree that authorized Rajah Mudah’s journey to Sabah.  

With reports from Michael Lim Ubac, Jerome Aning, AFP and The Star-Asia News Network



Mengapa `Tentera’ Sulu Ceroboh Lahad Datu?
Muda Mohd Noor

[FMT] PETALING JAYA: Tentera Kesultanan Sulu menceroboh Sabah setelah merasa rugi dengan perjanjian damai antara kerajaan Filipina dengan Barisan Pembebasan Islam Moro (MILF) di Kepulauan Mindanao.

Perjanjian damai ini menyebut Mindanao–termasuk Sulu–sebagai wilayah otonomi Bangsamoro dan memberikan sebahagian besar wilayah untuk diurus secara merdeka.

Ia menyebabkan Kesultanan Sulu merasa tidak mendapat kelebihan lagi dan berniat merebut wilayah mereka di tempat yang lain, iaitu Sabah seperti dilapor viva.co.id sebuah laman web di Indonesia.

Tetapi apa yang menyebabkan Kesultanan Sulu berani mendakwa wilayah Sabah sebagai tanah warisannya?

Kolumnis Rita Linda V. Jimeno, sebagaimana dilaporkan oleh Manila Standard Today, Isnin lalu menulis jejak sejarah kaitan antara Kesultanan Sulu dengan wilayah Sabah.

Dalam sejarahnya, sejak 1473 hingga 1658, Sabah yang dahulunya dikenal sebagai North Borneo (Borneo Utara) merupakan wilayah Kesultanan Brunei. Namun pada 1658, Sultan Brunei memberikan wilayah ini kepada Sultan Sulu. Pemberian ini sebagai membalas jasa kepada Sultan Sulu yang membantu memberhentikan perang saudara di Kesultanan Brunei.

Pos perdagangan British

Pada 1761, Alexander Dalrymple, seorang pegawai Bristish East India Company, megadakan perjanjian dengan Sultan Sulu untuk menyewa Sabah sebagai pos perdagangan British. Kesepakatan sewa-menyewa itu termasuk penyediaan tentera oleh Kesultanan Sulu untuk mengusir Sepanyol.

Pada 1846, pantai barat Borneo diserahkan oleh Sultan Brunei ke British. Jadilah pantai barat Borneo itu menjadi koloni Kerajaan British.

Di tahun-tahun berikutnya, terjadi serangkaian penyerahan hak sewa atas Sabah atau North Borneo ini. Akhirnya hak sewa jatuh ke Alfred Dent yang kemudian membentuk perusahaan yang dikenal dengan British North Borneo Company.

Pada 1885, British, Sepanyol dan Jerman menandatangani Protokol Madrid yang mengakui kedaulatan Sepanyol di Kepulauan Sulu. Pengakuan ini ditukar dengan pelepasan Sepanyol terhadap segala tuntutannya di Borneo Utara atau Sabah untuk menyokong British. Pada 1888, Sabah resmi menjadi protektorat British yang kemudian menduduki Malaysia sebagai jajahan.

Selepas Perang Dunia II, British berniat mengembalikan Sabah ke Kesultanan Sulu. Untuk proses itu, dilakukanlah pungutan suara bagi menentukan apakah rakyat Sabah memilih bergabung dengan Persekutuan Malaysia atau kembali ke Kesultanan Sulu. Dan hasilnya, rakyat Sabah lebih memilih bergabung ke Malaysia daripada kembali ke Sulu.

Pada 16 September 1963, Sabah bersatu dengan Malaysia, Sarawak dan Singapura, membentuk Malaysia merdeka.

Keputusan Mahkamah Tinggi North Borneo

Menurut Jimeno, tuntutan ahli waris Kesultanan Sulu tidak hanya didasarkan pada perjanjian sewa antara Kesultanan dengan North Borneo Company yang dibentuk British. Namun, tuntutan itu juga didasarkan pada keputusan Mahkamah Tinggi North Borneo pada 1939. Tuntutan ini dianggap lebih dulu, jauh sebelum pembentukan Malaysia.

Tuntutan FIlipina atas Sabah, atas nama Kesultanan Sulu, sebenarnya bukan kali ini saja terjadi. Tuntutan itu pertama kali dilakukan pada masa Presiden Diosdado Macapagal pada 1962, sebelum Malaysia terbentuk. Namun tuntutan ini telah berlarut-larut dari tahun ke tahun.

Jurucakap Jabatan Luar Negeri Filipina Raul Hernandez mengatakan, pemerintahnya belum melakukan perundingan lagi atas ‘perang tuntutan’ antara Kesultanan Sulu dengan Malaysia ini.

Dia menolak laporan media Malaysia yang menyebut rundingan antara Malaysia dengan orang-orang dari Kesultanan Sulu telah berakhir dan orang-orang bersenjata itu akan diusir dari wilayah yang kaya akan minyak itu.

“Sampai sekarang tidak ada diskusi mengenai tuntutan kami di Sabah. Masalah ini tergantung pada pembuat keputusan di negara kami untuk menentukan secara cermat apa yang akan dilakukan atas isu ini,” kata Hernandez sebagaimana dikutip laman interaksyon, Isnin lalu.