File review to stop Sulu sultanate payments for Sabah, A-G urged

KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 – Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail should quickly file for a court order to nip the annual rent Malaysia pays the Sulu sultanate for Sabah to protect the country’s sovereignty, MP Karpal Singh said today.
The veteran lawyer and federal lawmaker (picture) said the court review was a necessary procedure to stop the Philippines from further staking ownership to the north Borneo state, based on a 17th-century claim from a Filipino Muslim clan that invaded Sabah last month, and triggered clashes that have killed eight Malaysian policemen and two soldiers.
“As an independent country, we should not be paying lease money. By paying, we are accepting that we are not independent,” the Bukit Gelugor MP was quoted as saying in George Town today by The Star Online news portal.
“With the passage of time and with Sabah having joined Malaysia as a sovereign state by having ambassadorial level representation in the country, it clearly means that the Philippines cannot lay any claim to Sabah,” he added.
Karpal, who is also DAP chairman, said the government’s top lawyer could seek a review of the 1938 Borneo High Court decision to initiate Malaysia’s bid to halt the RM5,300 annual payment to heirs of the Sulu sultanate.
“It is my view that the cessation payment constitutes a fit and proper case for the High Court in Kota Kinabalu to review the 1938 decision and order that the cessation payment be discontinued immediately,” he was quoted as saying.
Manila has been reported to be mulling taking the Sulu sultanate’s claim on Sabah to be adjudicated at the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
The Sulu Sultanate has laid claim to Sabah, saying it had merely leased North Borneo in 1878 to the British North Borneo Company for an annual payment of 5,000 Malayan dollars then, which was increased to 5,300 Malayan dollars in 1903.
The sultanate has claimed that the payment amounts to rental of Sabah, but Malaysia has argued that it is instead payment for the sultanate’s ceding of its rights over the land.
Sabah, however, joined Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore to form Malaysia in 1963, after which Malaysia continued paying an annual stipend of RM5,300 to the Sulu sultanate on the basis of the sultanate ceding the Borneo state.
In a referendum organised by the Cobbold Commission in 1962, the people of Sabah voted overwhelmingly to join Malaysia.

Source themalaysianinsider