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The aftermath of a firefight in Sabah.In an attempt to justify his claim, Jamalul is playing that surefire diplomatic battle card: semantics. In 1878, the reigning sultan of Sulu made a deal with some guys from the British Empire. At the time, Sabah was known as North Borneo, and the sultan agreed to allow the British to exploit the area's natural resources for an annual rent payment of Mexican gold. The British relinquished control in 1963, and since then, the Malaysian government that subsequently assumed control of the area has paid the rent (around $1,800 a month split among all the Sulu heirs, including Jamalul).
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The whole mess explained in a diagram (click to enlarge).To make the situation even less complex, Jamalul has attempted to rope in exactly the kind of people you want when you're trying to bring serenity and order to a crisis: an armed Muslim rebel group. The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are fighting for autonomy in a region of the Philippines that includes both Sabah and Sulu. Jamalul claims the MNLF sent in soldiers to assist the Malaysian government in Sabah, but when I contacted them, they flat-out denied the claims and accused Jamalul of using their name as propaganda to inflate his own claim to be Sultan. To be honest, I have no idea who to believe anymore.Midyear elections in both Malaysia and the Philippines heighten the pressure to resolve the crisis, as both governments have already come under fire for their poor handling of the situation. Malaysia was slammed for its inability to protect its borders, then for the extreme force they used to get rid of their unwanted guests, while the Filipino government has been accused of failing to protect its citizens.If only Muedzul had been a year older in 1986, perhaps none of this would be happening—something that presumably dances through the nightmares of Benigno Aquino, the president of the Philippines, who is now being pressured to name a sultan of Sulu and subsequently deal with what kind of rights to Sabah that title affords its recipient.
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