PUTRAJAYA has allowed the Philippines’ claim on Sabah to go unresolved until today to keep Sabahans from exerting their full rights and autonomy as guaranteed in the Malaysia Agreement 1963, former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee said today. 

He said this tactic of making Sabahans believe that they need federal protection had been going on since the 1970s. 

“This is an old belief going back to the 1970s. We had also discussed this in the 1980s when I was still in PBS, so this has been around for a long time. 

“The question now is, why is Putrajaya not taking the necessary action to dispel the Filipinos, especially from the Southern Philippines, by telling them that they have no basis in fact to claim Sabah as part of their territory?” he asked at the launch of United Sabah Alliance’s national convention in Kota Kinabalu today.  

Yong had been a PBS member until he resigned in 1994 and formed the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) as a Barisan Nasional component party. 

He was chief minister from 1996 to 1998 under the rotational system.  

After losing badly in the 13th general election, SAPP joined the Sabah-based opposition party coalition, United Sabah Alliance (Gabungan Sabah), in 2016, along with Sabah Solidarity Tanah Airku, Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah and Parti Perpaduan Rakyat Sabah. 

Yong said historical records showed that Brunei’s had never handed Sabah (North Borneo) to the Sulu sultanate but instead to Baron Von Overbeck to be ceded to or leased to the British syndicate. 

“So why does Putrajaya not embark on a media campaign in Malaysia, the Philippines and around Asean to stop their claim? 

“Why has the federal government left the issue hanging until today, unless they prefer that the matter remain unresolved,” he said. 

Yong also took a swipe at Parti Warisan leader cum Semporna MP Shafie Apdal, who had once suggested in Parliament that Sabah’s claim be taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

He said this was a bad idea as it would take years to resolve and would encourage attacks by criminals from Southern Philippines at Sabah’s east coast. 

“The Filipinos would continue to think that Sabah belongs to them and would keep trying to assume ancestral claim over the state,” he said.

In 2013, armed intruders, acting on the orders of the so-called Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, crossed into Sabah’s Lahad Datu from Southern Philippines. 

A former Philippines senator, Aquillino “Nene” Pimentel Jr, had earlier this year suggested including Sabah as part of the Philippines under his proposal for the country’s constitutional amendments in the Philippines Charter Change consultative committee. – March 4, 2018.