PROFILE | Raja Muda: athlete, fisherman, tribal leader on 'mission impossible' in Sabah

From InterAksyon (Mar 9): PROFILE | Raja Muda: athlete, fisherman, tribal leader on 'mission impossible' in Sabah



Sultan Jamalul Kiram III gestures in a press conference to explain the mission that his younger brother, Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, had embarked on. BERNARD TESTA, INTERAKSYON.COM

 
The fresh explosions near the defensive positions of Raja Muda Agbimuddin’s group in Sabah may seem far from the Astanah Kiram in Taguig City, but inside the modest home of his older brother Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, family members closely monitor the latest news about him and his small contingent.

As unconfirmed news of more deaths among the Filipino sultanate followers who went with the Crown Prince continue to filter in through social media, news websites and text messages from Malaysian and Filipino sources, InterAksyon.com sat down Saturday with several family members. We wanted to know the man who, with his elder brother’s blessing, undertook a courageous, but still-vague mission to reclaim their "homeland" in North Borneo.

The sultanate’s spokesman and the sultan’s family first of all strongly denied reports in the social media—which they blamed on Malaysian government propaganda—that the Raja Muda had finally been killed since Malaysian forces started their assault on the Sulu force one week ago.

“As of yesterday, we spoke around 2:30 p.m. Friday March 8, the Crown Prince Raja Muda is alive and well but always on the run, they are mobile,” according to the sultanate’s spokesman Datu Abraham Idjirani. The sultan also spoke with his brother later Friday, according to some reports.

Asked about the Raja Muda’s journey to Sabah, Datu Shayeed or “Dats,” second child of the Crown Prince, replied, “Siempre magkahalong lungkot at bagabag ang nararamdan ko dahil sa kabiglaan sa insidenteng ito [I feel a mixture of sadness and anxiety over the sudden turn of events].”

Who is the Raja Muda and what makes him still a warrior when, at his age (72), he should be simply a venerable man who has retired, reads books, writes his memoirs and plays with his grandchildren and great grandchildren?

According to Dats, they were all brought up like the typical children of a Filipino household. “We grew up in a normal setting; we played football, soccer and volleyball; we played all sorts of the typical Filipino children’s games.”

His father is very athletic. “My father loves to box, he is also a star player in their basketball team, But never a violent person, always diplomatic.” A fisherman and a farmer, his athletic bent and cool demeanor made him ideal to lead the Royal Sulu Forces, he added.

They grew up quite distant from their father, whom they treated with utmost deference and respect, he says, adding, “I am closer to my mother Haj Nurkisa.”

Their father is a man of few words. “He won’t speak unless you address him, but he always exudes the air of authority and dignity. He has a certain appeal to those he rules. He is often busy attending to the needs of the people. That is also why we [his children] don’t bother him so much.”

Raja Muda knows many people, because after studying at the Sulu Trade School in Jolo, he landed a teaching job in a Tawi-Tawi school.

His wife Haj Nurkisa is also a teacher. They have 10 children, five girls and five boys.

Dats said it’s his father who initiates calls to them, and leaves short updates on their situation in Lahad Datu, where a full-scale assault by air and land has been mounted by Malaysian security forces, despite an appeal by the United Nations for an end to violence and a dialogue among parties; and the response of Sultan Kiram last Thursday for a unilateral ceasefire.

“They [Suluanons in Sabah] are okay. Their decisions are like law to us, they bind us. If they say they won’t come back here, they won’t.”

“It’s okay with all of us because we have submitted our fate to Allah.”

Meanwhile Datu Abdilnasser, a younger brother, told InterAksyon.com they have always treated their older siblings [Sultan Jamalul, Raja Muda] with respect. “Way back when we were young and they were still unmarried, they have guided us and provided for us [younger siblings].”

“We rarely spoke with them at length because of their public roles,” said Abdilnasser, the 11th child among the 13 Kiram siblings.

A grandson recalls

Datu Jamal Ruddin Kiram, 23, HRM student at the Unibersidad de Zamboanga, is the son of Datu Nashz Ruddin Kiram, eldest son of Sultan Kiram Jamalul III. Married with an infant son, he recalled the soft side of his grandfather (Sultan Jamalul).

He says the sultan wept as he was getting married in 2011, because he had married young.

He hopes to work abroad.

Despite their lineage, he recalls living a normal childhood, tagging along with his grandmother in their small businesses in Jolo, among others.

When the Sultan went home with some family members to Jolo in 2012, he recalls they led a humanitarian caravan to help poor communities.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/56720/profile--raja-muda-athlete-fisherman-tribal-leader-on-mission-impossible-in-sabah