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PETALING JAYA: It’s hard to believe, but a territorial dispute in North Borneo that dates back centuries continues to resurface in the 21st century.
And often it is not just a discussion between gentlemen around a table. Blood has been shed recently.
In 2013, some 200 insurgents from the Royal Sulu Army left Jolo in the southern Philippines and landed at Lahad Datu, Sabah, to claim territory for Sulu. The conflict lasted two months and there were casualties on both sides.
Why “claim”? It is a long and complicated story.
FMT spoke with Jatswan Singh, historian and associate professor in the Department of International and Strategic Studies at Universiti Malaya, to see if he could shed some light on the background to the dispute.
It’s a pretty tangled story with an extensive cast of colorful characters, but basically it all comes down to how the parties involved interpret a word.
That word is “pajakan” and the dispute is whether it means “rent” temporarily or “sell forever.”
Jatswan picks up the story.
“For centuries, the Sultan of Brunei owned most of what we now call Sabah and Sarawak,” he began.
There was a rebellion on the east coast of Sabah, which the sultan could not suppress. So, he asked Sulu for help, in exchange for some rivers on the east coast. Sulu agreed and the rebellion was put down.
This was the beginning of overlapping property claims in North Borneo.
Years later, when Western powers became interested in this part of Asia, a succession of adventurers secured leases from Brunei for the northern rivers.
Upon learning that Brunei was not the only land the Sultan controlled in the northeast, several adventurers sailed to Sulu in 1878.
At the time, the Sultan of Sulu was desperate for money and agreed to lease his land from Borneo.
With the lease in hand, the Westerners created the North Borneo Charter Company, which eventually received royal protection from the British.
The charter operated in the territory until 1946, when the administration was taken over by the British under the North Borneo crown colony.
In 1963, the state of Sabah together with Sarawak, Singapore and the Federation of Malaya formed Malaysia.
In the Sabah referendum held before the formation of Malaysia, Sabahans had voted to become part of the new country.
“And of course that raised the question of sovereignty over Sabah,” Jatswan said.
The Philippines interprets “pajakan” in the sense of “lease”, whereas the British government always interpreted it as “concession”.
So the British interpretation was that by means of this agreement, Sulu handed over the areas in perpetuity. The Philippines still maintains that it was only leased.
“I think you have to be truthful with the documents that exist,” Jatswan said.
“The records clearly show that the disputed territory has been part of Malaysia since 1963.
“If you want to start unearthing ancient history, we will never stop fighting.”
Jatswan believes that the countries involved must remain united in the spirit of Asean.
This peaceful approach has been tried before, most recently in November 2016, when President Duterte and then-Prime Minister Najib Razak agreed to put the dispute aside.
And yet this year another dispute broke out.
In response to a note the Philippines sent to the UN on March 6, Malaysia responded this August with the following statement:
“The Permanent Mission of Malaysia wishes to inform the Secretary General that Malaysia has never recognized the claim of the Republic of the Philippines on the Malaysian state of Sabah, formerly known as North Borneo.”
And it never will, he could have added, albeit in an undiplomatic way.
