KOTA KINABALU – Veteran Sabah politician Datuk Yong Teck Lee today launched an attack on former chief minister Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal (Senallang-Warisan) over a two-year-old news report on the latter claiming that his then-government had legally challenged a foreign territorial claim over Sabah.
Despite Shafie’s insistence that Sabah, being a state, does not have the authority to negotiate with another country, Yong demanded to know if a representative had been dispatched to Spain to counter the claim by the heirs of the Sulu sultanate in the Philippines.
“What is the involvement of Senallang in the case involving Sulu descendants claiming the state at a court in Madrid, Spain?” Yong asked at the state assembly today.
He cited the report in the Borneo Today news portal that quoted Shafie as saying someone was sent from Sabah to a court in Madrid to handle the claim when Warisan ruled the state.
Yong stressed that a presidential candidate in the Philippines reportedly said today that there is no need for the country to bring the claim to court. This is despite the Sulus hailing from the southern Philippines.
He also took Shafie, who is the Semporna MP, to task for demanding in Parliament in April 2016 that the claim be brought to an international court or to the United Nations.
“I have been waiting for Senallang to answer this question for two years. Two years ago I asked this question repeatedly when he was still the chief minister. Hence since we are face-to-face this time I must ask,” he said.
Yong said this as the Warisan president was speaking about the importance of addressing issues pertaining to the Sulu claim.
Shafie was chief minister from May 2018 to September 2020.
He explained that the Sabah government does not have the authority to negotiate with a foreign government, and it is under the purview of the federal government.
“I cannot be acting as a chief minister representing the country to do something. That is not right,” he said.
Yong interrupted to assert that that the Philippines did not make a claim and there is no longer a Sulu sultanate.
“This is an individual,” he said, apparently referring to the claimant.
Shafie then answered: “I have already said that the federal government made it clear that we are not entertaining this claim. Can you understand that? Who are we to say that we have the authority to represent this country?”
He went on to explain that the federal government must take the issue seriously as it is a threat to the people of Sabah, especially those living on the east coast.
However, he was stopped by a question from Datuk Annuar Ayub@Banand (Liawan-Sabah Star) who quoted the news article published on August 18, 2020.
It reported Shafie as insisting that his state government had not kept silent over the matter but instead had objected to the “baseless claim”, including going as far as Spain to challenge a legal move by descendants of the Sulu sultanate in claiming the state.
He was further reported as saying that the state government had opposed the court action as Sabah does not belong to the Philippines.
Shafie was also quoted as saying that the then state attorney-general Datuk Zaleha Rose Pandin was sent to the Iberian peninsula to challenge the claim.
Annuar asked: “I want to know what authority we (Sabah government during Warisan) had to challenge the claim when it involved an international issue and the authority is in the hands of the federal government as Senallang said.”
Shafie answered: “We said that the authority is in the hands of the federal government. We never said that this is under the state government. But the Sabah court had already decided that it (the claim) was no longer valid.”
Shafie went on with his debate speech and refused to give way to Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak (Usukan-BN) for another question.
Both Salleh and Yong are former chief ministers of Sabah. Salleh served from December 1994 to May 1996 and Yong from May 1996 to May 1998 under the then-rotation system. – The Vibes, March 21, 2022
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