By : MOHD JEFRI
RADIUS
WHAT does the title of this
simple write up means in the broader sense of the words? It is just to define
the likelihood or possibility of another significant event, a token of
appreciation from The Philippines Government for Malaysia’s role as mediator,
which finally led to the memorable sealing of the historic peace pact between
The Philippines Government and The Bangsa Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF);
after the horrific chronologies of bloodshed, clashes or insurgency for over four
decades that has claimed more than 150,000 lives in the Southern Philippines.
President Benigno Aquino III
described the occasion as an opportunity “to finally achieve genuine and
lastling peace“, while the Chief of the MILF Murad Ebrahim was quoted as saying
“We have inked the most important document in the Chapter of our history.“
A new region gifted with
rich potential minerals deposits is being created as spelt out in the framework
agreement for peace,vested with greater political powers and more control over resources compared to the
existing semi-autonomous region.
The region will be known as
“Bangsamoro, which literarily means Land of the Moros, who dominate majority
of the population living within its
territorial scope and extend.
PM Datuk Seri Najib Tun
Razak who led the delegation of Malaysian dignitaries including Sabah CM Datuk
Seri Musa Aman and Defence Minister Zahid Hamidi to Manila recently to witness
the signing of the peace pact expressed his gratitude posted in his One
Malaysia Blog,” This belief in moderation, tolerance and understanding is
something we hold dear in Malaysia and through the movement of moderation, we
must continue to promote these values globally”. (Daily Express Oct 20th, 2012)
Sensibly, we could randomly
guess the significance of Najib’s message that rolled across the board for us
to interpret, relevant to the historic signing ceremony recently.
We could not rule out the
probability that a thought of settling the long standing issue of The Sabah
Claim could have flashed in the minds of our premier with more feedbacks from
our Minister of Foreign Affairs Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, as the momentum is right
and timely for a deal of the issue, as the primary agenda to be discussed
amicably and diplomatically at the round table, to seek the perennial
settlement once and for all, judging from or considering Malaysia’s significant
and contributive roles as mediator in turning the peace visions and missions in
The Bangsamoro Land into reality.
Retrospectively, the idea of
The Sabah Annexation, which was officially endorsed by The Philippines
Government during The Marcos Administration in 1968, was believed to have been
strategically mooted and executed, purely based upon reference made to the
literary contents of the Historical 1878 Deed, whereby the documented statement
signed by the late Sultan of Sulu, Mohammed Jamalul Alam with two European
Baron Overbeck and Alfred Dent, spelt out the historic sovereignty of the Sulu
Sultanate over vast tract of territories, particularly on the Eastern Region of
North Borneo.
It is rather amusing to note
that The Base Line Act (Section 2446) of The Philippines Constitution reads
“Sabah is part of The Republic of The Philippines ”, but under The United Nations Charter such
provision is declared null and void.
Sabah became part of the
Federated States of Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963 and has been enjoying the fruits
of her independence with tremendous development and robust economic growths especially
under the current dynamic leadership of BN
State Government leads by CM Datuk Seri Musa Aman.
Ironically, although
Malaysia and The Philippines are two of the current nine members of the
regional grouping of the Association of The South East Asian Nations (ASEAN),
the sensitivity of this specific Filipino Bill, which was transcribed and
documented in The Philippines Constitution, has yet to be revoked amicably in
the mutual or cordial interest and
spirit of ASEAN.
In the mid 1980’s, The
Marcos Administration revived the issue of the Sabah Claim by fixing certain
terms and conditions to the Malaysian Government before the claim in question
could be denounced or dropped publicly.
The demand for compensation in the form of
monetary payment amounting to the tune of several billions in United States
currency plus lengthy period of crude oil supplies to The Philippines,
constituted two of the primary conditional terms.
However, the nature of the
demand appeared substantially unreasonable, which the Malaysian Government
could not accept.
When Corazon Aquino replaced
Marcos via the transitional of The People Power (Massive Public Demonstration
storming the Malacanang Palace, The issue of the Sabah Claim along with the
so–called demand was gradually grounded to a standstill until today.
The Autonomous Region of
Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) comprises four provinces (Magunindanao & Lanao Del
Sur on the mainland, while the islands provinces consisted of Sulu and
Tawi–Tawi ) with an extensive total land area of 11, 996 sq km and having an
estimated population statistics numbering more than three million peoples
excluding those who had made massive exodus out of their homeland during the
crux of the civil war in Mindanao between The Philippines Government and The
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in early ‘70’s.
The East Malaysian State of
Sabah’s long shores and coastlines, stretching from the tip of Bengkoka Peninsular
at the Northern region right down to Cowie Harbour within the proximity of
Indonesian territorial border of Kalimantan, holds or keeps untold mysteries
and secret foot prints, made by intruders, who had successfully managed to sneak
silently or illegally into the State
.
Mustafa’s USNO led Alliance
State Government welcomed the string of unstoppable influx of political refugees
from the Southern Philippines on humanitarian grounds without fixed conditions
at that time.
Over the years, these
so–called political refugees did not show willingness to return even though the
crux of the wars and conflicts had slowed down on several occasions. The
scenario worsened when a new breed of Filipinos classified as “Illegal
Immigrants“ infested every nook and corner of the State in the thousands in
search of greener pasture, raising many eye brows and questions WHY?
Our patrolling coastal
guards were not able to detect the aliens secret routes made via back doors neither spotted on
sight on the vastness of the open seas nor upon reaching our shores.
During the previous Regularisation
Programme, which ended on Aug 31, 1997, the Federal Special Task Force
estimated Indonesian and Filipinos inclusive of their dependents to be more
than 400,000.
Lately, Federal Task Force for
Sabah and Labuan Director Datuk Suhaimi Mohd Salleh said “Exact numbers of
Filipinos in Sabah hard to determine – In Sabah they have been categorized as Refugees, Legal Foreign
Workers and Illegal Immigrants , a factor that makes it difficult to state
their accurate population in the State.
"Another factor is that
there is no liaison office of the Philippines or their Consulate in Sabah to
enable their citizens to obtain passports and other valid travel documents.“ (Daily
Express October 19th, 2012).
ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman
was quoted as saying that his government and the Sabah Government could work
jointly to address the problem of the huge presence of Filipino refugees in
Sabah “If there is no conflict and there are economic opportunities in this
region, then the Bangsamoro brothers will be pushed to come back.“
It is still fresh in the
memories of many living Sabahans that Prof.Nur Masuri, former Governor of
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) cum Chairman of MNLF while on a
sojourn to Sabah way back in 1997, a year after he signed the previous peace
plan with the Philippines government “Masuri had expectated to call on the
estimated 300,000 Filipinos immigrants in
Sabah to return home as their resources would be required to rebuild the
Southern Region when peace had been fully restored ” (The New Straits Times
October 28th 1997)
Ironically, Masuri’s Visions
and Missions did not materialize as clusters of problems, stigmas and conflicts of interest and opinions , begun to crop up
without a solution in sight from within his own organization leading to the creation of the MILF, led by Hasim
Salamat and posing a stiff threat to Masuri’s Peace Plan and Autonomy within
the region.
The emergence of Abu Sayyaf,
the most radical group operating within the region and well known for raising
funds by kidnapping people for ransom was another obstacle to Masuari’s peace
plan then. Some analysts believe it is linked to Al –Qaeda, the organization
formed by the late Osama Bin Laden.
Former Philippines President
Gloria Macapagal had once rejected Malaysian Authority’s massive repatriation
of Filipinos illegal immigrants from Sabah back into the Philippines during the
era of Tun Abdullah Badawi Administration on the ground of Stateless or without
proper identifications.
Advance fine expectation gleamed from the
hearts of several Malaysian leaders irrespective of their political ideologies
once the historic peace pact was signed by the
relevant parties.
CM Musa, who was among the
State dignitaries invited by Najib to witness the signing of the peace treaty
accord in Manila recently said “It is a reflection of the commitment towards
ending decades of violence and give the Bangsamoro people a
chance to live on their own land in peace “While PKR Sabah Immigration
and Electoral Reform Bureau Dr Chong Eng Leong said “All the estimated 84,000 IMM13 holders must surrender
the yellow IMM13 cards and can be treated like other foreign migrants. They
should be issued with temporary entry
visa before they are sent back to their country unless in possession of work
permits.“
The successful implementation
of the Peace Accord Treaty between the relevant parties augurs perfectly well
for the Bangsamoro business leaders to tap the marketing prospects available
locally and abroad via the integration platform of TheBrunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-the
Philippines - East Asia Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA)
Although the framework is in
place, a transition commission has yet to be established to finalise more
issues before the whole proposal will be wrapped up for a Referendum.
The Philippines Government
had vested this task to The International Monitoring Team (IMT) which has been on
peace mission since Sept, 2004, to continue monitoring the momentum of
resolving the armed conflict between the
rival parties in Mindanao.
Apart from Malaysia, Brunei,
Indonesia, Japan, England and Norway have participated in the IMT Joint Task
Grouping.
Hence, Malaysia’s rays of
hope in seeking perennial settlement to the long stand Sabah Claim Issue is
within sight of touch with the possibility of turning this dream into reality
one day, judging from our country’s role as mediator that had fruitfully led to
the signing of the historic peace accord treaty between the Philippines Government
and the MILF in Manila recently. The wisdom
of Horace tells us “ The Beginning is the most important part of the work.“
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