Fourteen killed in stand-off between Philippine sultan and Malaysia

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Mar 4, 2013

(World Socialist Website) – Both the Philippines and Malaysia are currently in the thick of election campaigns. Najib and Aquino have responded to the stand-off with apparent reluctance and political embarrassment, each seeking to preserve local political alliances in the lead up to elections.

Fourteen people died in Sabah, North Borneo, during an exchange of fire between Malaysian security forces and the followers of the leader of a southern Philippine political dynasty, the Sultan of Sulu. There are conflicting reports, but it is clear is that 12 of the Sultan’s followers and two Malaysian policemen died during the half-hour firefight on March 1.

On February 11, around one hundred people, with 30 to 40 small arms, sailed from the Sulu archipelago in the southeastern Philippines and entered Lahad Datu, in eastern Sabah, one of the 13 member states of Malaysia. They were led by Agbimuddin Kiram, who was sent by his brother Jamalul Kiram, one of two claimants to the title of Sultan of Sulu. Kiram is asserting an ancestral claim to the entire state of Sabah, a claim that has the longstanding endorsement of the Philippine government.

Malaysian security forces surrounded the remote village where Kiram and his supporters landed. Over the two weeks leading up to the shoot-out there was a bizarre and complicated stand-off between the governments of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Philippine President Benigno Aquino, and the forces of the sultan.

Both the Philippines and Malaysia are currently in the thick of election campaigns. Najib and Aquino have responded to the stand-off with apparent reluctance and political embarrassment, each seeking to preserve local political alliances in the lead up to elections.

Najib’s ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) has been steadily losing political ground, in the face of an increasing downturn in Malaysia’s export markets. Sabah is one of the Malaysian states in which the United Malays National Organization (UMNO)-led BN is most vulnerable, as it is one of five states where BN has lost in the past to the opposition Peoples Alliance (PR) coalition.

The initially hesitant response from Kuala Lumpur to the Sabah stand-off was dictated by Najib’s desire to preserve political ties with sections of the local elite, who rely heavily on hundreds of thousands of Filipino migrant workers employed in Sabah’s palm oil plantations. A souring of relations with the Philippines might jeopardize this supply of cheap labor.

UMNO has, through a calculated practice of preferential economic and political policies, deliberately cultivated its support base among the ethnic Malay population. The opposition PR has charged UMNO with selectively granting citizenship in Sabah to Muslim Malay populations, such as so-called illegal Filipino immigrants, under the auspices of ‘Project IC’ in a bid to shore up its political support in the state.

Philippine President Aquino meanwhile is seeking political advantage for his Liberal Party coalition in the upcoming midterm elections in May. The incursion of the sultan of Sulu’s forces into Sabah places at risk the recent peace deal between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the establishment of an autonomous political entity known as Bangsamoro, intended to end decades of hostilities on the southern island of Mindanao. The Bangsamoro peace deal was brokered by Kuala Lumpur under Prime Minister Najib.

The peace deal was made at the instigation, and with the full support, of Washington, which has an eye to both the possibility of placing military bases within the autonomous Bangsamoro region, as well as to its use as a platform for cheap labor.

At the same time, however, members of the rival United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) coalition in the Philippines have begun to seize upon the opportunity afforded them by the Sabah stand-off to engage in political grandstanding, calling upon Aquino to defend Philippine national sovereignty and to assert the historical claims to Sabah.

The opposition parties in the Malaysian PR, particularly Anwar Ibrahim’s Keadilan party, have denounced Najib for “compromising the security and safety of Malaysians” and said there is “no valid reason whatsoever for our Malaysian Armed Forces not to act to defend our country against the armed Sulu invaders.” They called for a crackdown on “foreigners” in Sabah, who were becoming “a security threat to those born in Malaysia.” This retrograde appeal to nationalism is an attempt to undermine UMNO’s moves to expand its base of support in Sabah.

Under this mounting opposition pressure, Najib issued a deadline to Aquino for the sultan’s forces to leave Sabah. Aquino, reluctant to appear to be relinquishing Philippine territorial claims, but under a great deal of pressure from Washington to push the peace deal with the MILF forward, equivocated. He said the Philippine government did not recognize Jamalul Kiram as rightful sultan, as there were several rival hereditary claims to the title. He thus avoided directly addressing the question of the territorial claim.