KOTA KINABALU – The Malaysian government should have sought a court declaration to nullify the 1878 agreement and stop the cession payment to the Sulu sultanate’s heirs after the 2013 Lahad Datu incursion, said the Sabah Law Society (SLS).
SLS president Roger Chin told The Vibes that the declaration could have been considered seeing that Sulu militants were allegedly involved in the incursion.
“However, Malaysia stopped paying, resulting in the heirs taking this to the French arbitration court.”
This was also explained by former attorney-general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas in a forum yesterday.
He had suggested that the matter should have been brought to the Kota Kinabalu courts if there was objective evidence that the Lahad Datu invaders were linked to the Sulu sultanate.
The 2013 Lahad Datu standoff was an armed conflict involving the Malaysian military against the 235 militants who called themselves the Royal Security Forces of the sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo.
The late Jamalul Kiram III was reported to have directed the militants to invade Lahad Datu.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia has stopped the annual RM5,300 cession payment in 2013. – The Vibes, April 5, 2022
