KOTA KINABALU – Malaysia’s sovereignty will remain under threat if Putrajaya’s unenthusiastic handling of the Sulu claim continues, said Warisan lawmaker Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis.
Speaking to a press conference after being booted out of the Dewan Rakyat on a two-day suspension for causing an uproar over the matter in the lower House, the Kota Belud MP pointed out that the country stands to lose more assets if it does not end the claims of the Sulu Sultanate heirs.
“I had filed three motions previously (before the seizure), all of them were rejected in the past sittings in March. Now I am in my fourth motion and still they rejected (after the seizures). This is a matter of national sovereignty.
“Not forests or any other matters but national sovereignty. All I wanted from the government is their firm stand and to go all out to fight this claim.
“Is it not enough that the national assets were seized, or should more be seized until we finally want to take the matter seriously?” asked Isnaraissah, who was visibly disappointed over the Dewan Rakyat’s refusal to allow her motion to debate on the seizures.
Earlier, the opposition legislator had called out Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun over his refusal to allow the debate over the Sulu Sultanate claim and seizure of Petronas foreign subsidiaries – Petronas Azerbaijan and (Shah Deniz) S.à r.l. and Petronas South Caucasus S.à r.l.
The seizures of the two Petronas subsidiaries by the Luxembourg authorities recently took its cue from a French arbitration court decision to award US$14.9 billion (RM66.3 billion) to the heirs of the Sulu Sultanate.
This comes after Malaysia ended the annual cession payment of RM5,300 to the Sulu Sultanate following the Tanduo incursion in 2013. The payment was based on the 1878 treaty between the sultanate and the British North Borneo Company.
Isnaraissah also said she was upset that the government only filed a stay of execution on July 12, after the seizure of the Petronas firms and months after the arbitration court awarded the Sulu Sultanate heirs.
Further to this, she also questioned whether the Dewan Rakyat feared the Philippines for not allowing the motion to be debated.
She said all this while Philippines lawmakers have openly discussed their claim over Sabah based on the Sulu heirs’ claim over the state during the country’s presidential debate and in its Parliament.
“As a Sabahan how should I feel? It seems Sabah is easily being pawned, rented by the Philippines, Sulu, or Malaysia,” said Isnaraissah, adding that Sabah is directly affected by the Sulu heirs’ claim.
She added that many are directly impacted by the issue, which in the past saw the bloody Tanduo incursion and kidnappings from Sulu terrorists and criminals.
Meanwhile, the party’s Youth chief Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman, who also spoke at the press conference, expressed his disappointment over the fate of Sabah that is always precarious due to the security threat posed from Sulus in the southern Philippines.
He said it has been close to nine years since the dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed in the east coast of Sabah since the Tanduo incursion in 2013.
“The Philippines also appears (to) not (be) respecting the diplomatic ties they had with Malaysia. They openly and without fear talk about claiming Sabah in their Parliament.
“If they dare to do it, then why is Malaysia afraid to do the same? We wanted this matter to be debated because the foreign minister was in the Dewan Rakyat earlier.
“He could easily make it part of his agenda to demand the claim over Sabah to end in his many meet-ups with international leaders,” he said.
Azis also said the issue, which Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal intended to raise, was also rejected in the ongoing Sabah assembly starting today.
He also made it clear that no Sabah leaders nor the public were aware Putrajaya had been paying the annual cession money until the matter was revealed in 2013 when a federal minister announced payment had ceased following the Tanduo incursion.
Labuan MP Datuk Rozman Isli meanwhile said the speaker’s decision not to have the motion debated openly in the Dewan Rakyat is the reason why negligence and inaction happened on the part of the government.
“The matter should not be ignored. There are already seizures of the national assets. Is this not proof enough that we should fight for our rights?” he said.
Meanwhile, Kalabakan MP Ma’mun Sulaiman also questioned whether Sabah is still relevant in Malaysia, adding that all the steps taken by the federal government up until this point showed that they do not care about Sabah.
“Are the origins of Sabah unimportant, but the state wealth is constantly being taken to develop the peninsula, while the state remains backwards and ridiculed by this issue?” he asked. – The Vibes, July 18, 2022
