Sabah Standoff Issues

[Ry_Tower]

When Macoy said that the Phil will not pursue claim to Sabah, that is when things went from bad to worse for us.

Malaysi is rising, we are well, here pa rin. If once the ICJ denied our petition for arbitration, mas malabo na ngayon at very established na malaysian gov't doon. Mahihirapan na tayo, yun ang totoo.

[hein]

If those clanmen can wreak havoc in sabah for years to come, then we can prove to the world that we are not pushover. Imagine a guerilla group can match a country military. .

Wishful Thinking. Mahina ang PH military.

Malaysia finished off their insurgengy in 3 years. Tayo 50 years hindi pa tapos.

Plus, the Sabah people favor the Malysians over the Pinoys. In a documentary by ABS-CBN, even the Filipinos who live there say Malaysia manages things better than PH.

[donbuggy]

Malaysian forces launch all-out attack against intruders

The Star/Asia News Network, NST
Tuesday, Mar 05, 2013

LAHAD DATU - Dawn attacks to flush out the remaining group of armed Sulu gunmen is on.

Early Tuesday morning, fighter jets began screaming low over the armed group cornered at the village since Feb 9.

Continuous explosions are being heard as the police and army move in against the gunmen who are reportedly firing back.

The situation around Tanjung Labian, about 7km away from Tanduo village in Felda Village 17 was tense as more than 300 villagers huddled in a community hall kept hearing the explosions.

The ground battle is believed to be on in Tanduo village now.

[Altis6453]

From Philstar.com

Impending defeat can end Jamalul loyalty control
by: Jairus Bondoc

Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III has started a fight he can never hope to win. For detailing too long in Tanduao village, Lahad Datu, Sabah, his ragtag band of Tausug loyalists, Malaysia had to eject them by force. Resisting with a few long arms, they slew two Malaysian policemen, but themselves suffered ten dead and ten captured. Elsewhere in Sabah in the next days they in turn killed five Malaysian soldiers and took hostage four. It only worsened their situation. Provoked, Malaysia naturally is using everything in its arsenal, including fighter-bombers and mortars, to contain them. They will be wiped out, by bullet if not by deprivation.

Violence, hatred, suspicion are now feeding themselves. A retired but armed Moro rebel reportedly rounded up Sabahan neighbors, but was mobbed. Malaysian forces mowed down Jamalul sympathizers, including two imams (Muslim prayer leaders) and sons. Hundreds of their fellow-Tausugs were deported from Sabah Sunday, with more to follow for illegal stays. Dozens of others, legally employed, have been fired by Malaysian employers. Many of the 800,000 Filipinos in Sabah, mostly Tausugs, reportedly are in fear of reprisals.

Jamalul had miscalculated. Taking for Malaysian weakness four deferments of any assault, he had his brother Raja Muda (Crown Prince) Agbi-muddin and the loyalists dig in at Tanduao. The ensuing massacre is akin to what happened to Tausugs in Jolo, Sulu, this week 107 years ago, in the (First) Battle of Bud Daho.

The Sulu Sultan was on the side of the American massacrers in 1906, though. The most diehard Tausug resisters of American rule had holed up in the forested crater of the dormant volcano. The colonial army balked at attacking. For, sustaining heavy casualties would point up the near impregnability of the mountain stronghold. The rebels, 800 to 1,000 including women and children, misjudged as softness the American hesitance. They raided lowland villages for food, angering the datus. Rejected was a last-ditch try by the Sultan to make them disband. American ground and naval artillery were called in, followed by mounted and foot soldiers. The rebels resisted with mere swords, spears, and improvised grenades. Only six of them came out alive.

Jamalul seems to not have learned from that lesson. This puts in question not only his generalship but also his royalty claim. Followers naturally desert a defeated leader. There are ten other claimants to the Sultan’s throne, largely symbolic as it may be.

* * *

It takes two hands to clap. Jamalul rebukes Malacañang for vagueness about its stand on his Sabah claims. Yet he and Agbimuddin appear to not be upfront as well about their intents. That is Malacañang’s explanation for the crafting of its statements on the standoff and ensuing armed clashes.

Malacañang cites three instances of doubletalk by Jamalul and Agbimuddin: (1) in their bearing of arms in Sabah, (2) in their appeals for support, (3) in their denial of Palace efforts to help resolve their dilemma.

Of 180 to 235 loyalists who went to Sabah, 30 allegedly were armed with rifles and pistols only to secure Agbimuddin. They intended no aggression; thus the presence of 30 women. Reports are sketchy if they indeed had fired first in Tanduao, at a patrol car that was enforcing a distant perimeter. But the instant retaliations in Sem****a, two-and-a-half hours’ drive away, shows that the arming was more than for just bodyguard, Malacañang says.

Jamalul and Agbimuddin also would not say if the help they seek is in pressing their proprietary claim, that is, higher annual rent. They lament that the Sultanate receives a mere 5,300 ringgit a year, which when divvied up redounds to at most P2.50 per adult heir. The President refuses to talk about the claim unless Jamalul and Agbimuddin stand down first. Yet three Cabinet men have assured that the government has not abandoned the sovereignty right. The Sultanate is saying that what it is doing in Sabah will benefit the Filipino nation.

From the start, Malacañang had sent Presidential Political Adviser Ronald Llamas and National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia to help save the lives of Jamalul’s men. They apparently disagreed, so Malacañang dispatched two Muslims by birth: Muslim Autonomous Region Gov. Mujiv Hataman, who is half-Tausug and speaks the language, and police general Cipriano Querol Jr. They acceded to Jamalul’s request for non-publicizing of their talks. That’s why, Malacañang says, it was surprised when the latter accused them of refusing to talk.

Even the hour-long sea crossing from Simunol, Tawi-Tawi, to Tanduao is suspect, Malacañang adds a fourth item. If Jamalul and Agbimuddin are bent on dramatizing their claim, why in March? Summer, in May-June, would have seen calmer seas, not treacherous habagat (southwest trade winds). Was it timed for the simultaneous election campaigns in the Philippines and Malaysia?

Indeed election contenders in both countries are now politicizing the issue. In the Philippines, the opposition is bashing the party in power for mishandling the standoff-turned-massacre. Former bitter foes are coming together in what Malacañang in turn calls provocateur-financiers of the Sulu Sultanate’s “royal guards.”

In Malaysia, the ruling party is accusing the opposition of collusion with the Tausug intruders. A plot is in the offing to blackmail Agbimuddin’s remnants to implicate certain political figures.

The screeching from both sides — to invade Sabah or deport all 800,000 Filipinos, jail all political foes or muzzle the press — do not help to dissipate the conflict.

[vinj]

That was one ill-advised and ill-mannered adventure into Sabah if you ask me. There is a better way to push one's claims and going forth into war is not the way to do it today.

Likewise, we already have enough problems in Mindanao so adding on Sabah at this point in a forceful manner will just stretch our meager resources even more. I agree with the observation of Yebo and Uls where we can't even properly convert and use the resources we have, and for sure there will be a select few who will pursue Sabah for their own vested interests rather than the good of the state.

[Monseratto]

Manila Bulletin

Malaysian-Trained MNLF Fighters Join Kiram Forces
By: Edd K. Usman
Published: March 5, 2013

BRACING FOR MORE FIGHTING – Malaysian soldiers aboard an armored personnel carrier drive toward the site of the standoff with Filipino gunmen in Tanduo village, Sabah. Malaysia has vowed to beef up security in the area as the death toll increased following new attacks. (AFP)
Malaysian security forces are now facing battle-tested, Malaysian-trained commanders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), who know Sabah like the palm of their hands.

Hadji Acmad Bayam, former chief propagandist of the MNLF, revealed this yesterday to the Manila Bulletin, adding that these MNLF forces may have at their disposal a huge arsenal, which they hid deep in Sabah’s rugged terrain when they returned to the Philippines after their rigid training.

Among the firearms are Belgian-made G1 and FAL, which the late Libya leader Colonel Moammar Khadafy supplied through Malaysia.

Bayam said he was confident the Malaysian authorities were not able to find the hidden MNLF firearms because they were kept very well by the MNLF commanders who stayed behind in Sabah.

During that training, Malaysian military trainors even joked about the firearms at the MNLF training camp on Jampiras Island, off Sabah, as they turned over Khadafy’s weapons’ supply.

“We are not even sure if the firearms we are giving you will not be turned against,” the Malaysian trainors had said in a jest.

“Well, speaking of self-fulfilling prophecy,” Bayam said, recalling the jokes of the Malaysian trainors.

Now, Filipinos in Sabah, who are not part of the forces of the Sultanate of Sulu, have already joined the fighting in reaction to what they perceived as Malaysian “atrocities” for killing Imam Maas and his four sons at 7:50 p.m. Saturday.

He recalled that Malaysia’s leadership had even suspected the then chief minister of Sabah, Tun Mustapha, a Tausug from Sulu, of “conspiring” with MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari to secede the oil-rich island.

“You know, if Mindanao is to Manila, Sabah is to Kuala Lumpur,” said Bayam, explaining that Mindanao and Sabah are the “milking cows” of the Philippines and Malaysia, respectively, for their rich natural resources.

Bayam, who yielded to then President Fidel V. Ramos, stayed in Sabah, Malaysia, for nine years before the peace talks with the Ramos administration in 1993.

Bayam stayed in Sabah on-and-off, in 1976-79, in 1980-1986, among other dates.

Further, he said many of the seasoned rebel commanders and rank-and-file members chose to remain on Sabah island to live there.

Majority of them are from Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga Peninsula, but there are also Maguindanaons, Iranons, and probably Maranaos, he said.

A few days ago, he said one of the MNLF foreign-trained commanders belonging to the Top 90 Batch, told him that he was enlisting Tausug warriors and others for reinforcement to the Royal Security Force (RSF) of the Sultanate of Sulu.

“I was trying to contact him yesterday but his phone cannot be reached anymore. I guess he was able to penetrate the Malaysian and Philippine sea-borne blockades in their respective borders.

Bayam described the commander “as soft-spoken but firm and true leader-fighter in actual shooting war.” However, he requested that the commander’s name be not made public.

Last Sunday, Abraham J. Idjirani, spokesman of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, said 40 people from Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and Zamboanga Peninsula breached the blockades and reached Lahad Datu, Sabah, scene of the standoff that erupted into a firefight.

He said there are many others who are now trying to go to Sabah and help the sultan’s followers led by Rajah Muda Agbimuddin Kiram.

Bayam said that with the way the situation in Sabah is going on, he sees no turning back.

On the other hand, he said this gives the United States an opportunity to correct its “historical error” it committed against the Moro people.

He said this was even acknowledged by the administration of then President George Bush in response to a letter from the late Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Ustadhz Salamat Hashim.

Cooler heads should put themselves at work and resolve the issue on Sabah claim.

“This is the best time and opportunity,” Bayam said. “They should seize the fleeting opportunity or lost it forever.”

“As the only leader of the free world, the only guardian of human rights, freedom and democracy, the American government has the opportunity to correct the historical error against the Moro people,” Bayam said.

Feeling Abandoned

Meanwhile, Sultan Jamalul Kiram III who still feeling abandoned by the Philippines yesterday said they are now relying on the United Nations, United States, and United Kingdom for help.

He said they are no longer waiting for any help from the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III because none is coming anyway.

Kiram aired his sentiments on DZMM radio early Monday morning.

“We are not waiting anymore. No more. There is no help (from the Philippines),” he said in Filipino.

He said now they will rely on the UN, US, and UK.

On the appeal of the President to preserve the lives of the Sultanate of Sulu’s followers in Lahad Datu, Sabah, the sultan struck a defiant mood.

“No more. There is no more preservation... it’s in the hands of Almighty Allah,” the sultan said.

As this developed, former congressman Satur Ocampo, Dr. Carol Araullo, both Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, and Vice President Rafaelita Gonio of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa), paid a visit yesterday at Astanah Kiram in Maharlika Village, Taguig City.

Ocampo and Araullo expressed support to the cause of the Kirams in trying to claim Sabah from Malaysia.

Ocampo said that the President should review the government’s stand because the new developments.

Gonio said her support is a personal one because Philconsa has not yet made its position on the issue.

At about 12:20 p.m. also yesterday, another militant, independent senatorial candidate Teddy Casino also arrived to visit the sultan.

Early Sunday evening, former secretary of Department of National Defense (DND) Norberto Gonzales made a surprised visit at Astanah Kiram, as he belied allegations he had a hand in the Sabah standoff.

He said he saw the sultan on television and felt sad for his condition.

On Malacañang’s allegations he was allegedly one of the “instigators” of the Sabah standoff, he said he did not know about it.

Whether he is a “collaborator” in the now bloody standoff, he had an answer.

“If being a friend (makes you) a collaborator, then I am a collaborator,” said Gonzales, the former former National Security Adviser of then President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

[greenlyt]

Manila Bulletin

“We are not waiting anymore. No more. There is no help (from the Philippines),” he said in Filipino.

He said now they will rely on the UN, US, and UK.

correct me if i'm wrong pero d ba ang tawag ng muslim sa US and UK ay infidel/enemy, ngayon sa US sila hihngi ng tulong

[shadow]

akala ko born warriors? patay kung patay, bakit ngayon hihingi ng tulong?

[uls]

meron daw 10,000 Tausugs on the way to Sabah

[IMm29]

Well, this is going nowhere good fast.