Sultanate welcomes creation of Sabah study group but nixes deadline to leave

From InterAkyson (Feb 22): Sultanate welcomes creation of Sabah study group but nixes deadline to leave



Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram II (Erik de Castro, Reuters)

While pleased by the move of President Benigno Aquino III to form a study group to review the country’s options on the oil-rich territory of Sabah, Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram II said Friday they have no plans to recall hundreds of followers, some armed, from a village in Lahad Datu where they have been in a standoff with Malaysian authorities.

Speaking to reporters at the Blue Mosque in Taguig City, Kiram said he was not bothered by the reported “ultimatum” issued by Malaysia for his followers, the self-described Royal Sultanate Army, to call off their “intrusion” into Malaysian territory by Friday, February 22.

Kiram attended prayers held by the Muslim community in Maharlika Village.
At the same time, he said they have not received the reported Malaysian ultimatum, leading them to suspect it could be a government ploy to make them back down.
Another representative of the Kiram family, addressing reporters later, said the Philippine government -- to which the Sultanate of Sulu ceded its claim in the 1960S -- has lost, by its decades of neglect and virtual surrender to Malaysia, its authority over Sabah.

The resource-rich territory, which hundreds of thousands of Filipinos from Mindanao have made their home in past years, has reverted to the sultanate, the Kiram representative said.

Responding to a question, she confirmed that Malacanang Palace in recent days had sent emissaries to the Kirams in a bid to resolve the standoff triggered by the sultanate’s followers’ decision to stay in Lahad Datu.

She named Miriam Coronel, chair of the government panel in peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, presidential political affairs adviser Roland Llamas, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujid Hataman, and an unnamed justice undersecretary.

There was a suggestion for Kiram to go to Malaysia and persuade his brother Datu Rajah Muda to come home, but the sultanate rejected this, she added.

She said the decision of the sultan’s followers to stay put in Lahad Datu was “a voluntary effort of the royal forces,” adding that, “if there was an EDSA revolution, I think this is the Sabah revolt of the royal forces.”

Earlier, Kiram expressed confidence the Malaysians will be open to talks and will not use force against their group, noting how hurting a fellow Muslim is haram, or forbidden, in Islam.

“The Sultanate of Sulu is willing to sit down and talk for peace. We want peace,” he said.

But earlier, Kiram said any negotiations with Malaysia should be held in another Muslim country, either Indonesia or Brunei.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/55634/sultanate-welcomes-creation-of-sabah-study-group-but-nixes-deadline-to-leave