CLOSE-UP VIEW Malaysia's Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein uses a pair of binoculars to view Tanduao village, where armed Filipinos from Sulu are holed up near Lahad Datu, during his visit on Tuesday. Followers of the sultan of Sulu who crossed to the Malaysian state of Sabah this month, have said they are reclaiming the area as their ancestral territory, the sultan said on Sunday amid a tense standoff. AFP
The peaceful group of the "Crowned Prince of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo" entering back their territory makes the Chinese origin Sabah chief-cum-member Hiew King Cheu insecure of their presence in the territory and demanding for a death penalty for the Prince and his group for entering and claiming back their leased territory to Malaysia.
Chief-cum-member Hiew King Cheu also blamed the incompetency of their military force for allowing the group to enter Sabah undetected.
A comment from the unverified source, an insider of the Royal Malaysian Navy in Sabah who refused to be named said the group where the Crowned Prince of the Sultanate of Sulu and his armed guards boarded were already detected when they entered the Sabah waters but they did not board the ship r knowing that the Prince is aboard with his armed guards. "As a respect for the Prince, we did not block them" he said.
Other Muslim countries start criticizing Malaysia, a Muslim country for taking advantage for the weakness of the Islamic Sultanate of Sulu and for depriving the Royal Family's territorial rights. Malaysia is Haram حرم. "Good Muslim must not take advantage for the weakness of the other Muslim just because of Money" as commented in a website.
Reported in the Daily Express, a Malaysian Independent News paper, "DAP queries if some in the armed group have Mykad"
MyKad is a biometric compulsory identity document for Malaysian citizens aged 12 and above. Introduced by the National Registration Department of Malaysia on 5 September 2001 as one of four MSC Malaysia flagship applications and a replacement for the High Quality Identity Card (Kad Pengenalan Bermutu Tinggi)
Malaysia's Sabah (North Borneo) lease payment to the Sultanate of Sulu (evidence) 2003
In Kota Kinabalu (KK): Sabah DAP urged the authorities to ascertain whether it is true that some among the Filipino guard of the Crowned Prince of Sultanate of Sulu holed up in Kg Tanduo, in Lahad Datu, are actually MyKad holders.
Its Sabah chief-cum-Member of Parliament, Hiew King Cheu, said if true, then some of them are actually Malaysians regardless of how they obtained the document.
He also said many people are still puzzled how the group estimated at between 200 and 400 managed to get through the layers of Malaysian defence, namely the marine patrols, the MMEA and the army.
"According to people in Lahad Datu, the usual passenger number on these speedboats smuggling people is not more than 30.
"If even 150 militants landed, that means at least 5 speedboats had to do the dropping off. How come our Forces did not detect them?" he asked, adding this suggested that they are already in Sabah and that probably hundreds of thousands of them now have Mykad.
The group is said to have landed on Feb. 9 and have demanded that Malaysia recognize them as the Royal Sulu Sultanate army and for Malaysia to promise not to deport the Suluk illegals "because Sabah still belongs to the Sulu sultanate." He said the impression to the outside world is one of our Forces being bullied by a small bunch of militants from a defunct sultanate.
He said this is despite the Government having spent billions of Ringgit to equip the army, navy, air force and police with weapons, armored vehicles, helicopters, fighter planes, warships and submarines.
"The negotiations have going on for too long and are becoming very fishy as it is now more than two weeks," he said.
Malaysia's Sabah (North Borneo) lease payment to the Sultanate of Sulu (evidence) 2004
"This is a lame approach by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government to protect our national dignity and sovereignty. It just shows BN's complete weakness in handling a serious emergency situation.
"Their action should have been swift and decisive to demonstrate our security forces strength and power."
He said the security forces should have forced the intruders to surrender and put them behind bars under the country's law for entering Malaysia with deadly weapons.
"Under the law those having 'unlawful possession of firearms' in contravention of the Arms Act 1960 is punishable by death penalty, imprisonment for life or 10-14 years imprisonment with whipping with not less than six strokes of the rotan depending on the case," he said.
He said the patience of villagers are running thin as they were barred from entering their own village and back to their homes, while details of the so-called "negotiations" are withheld from public knowledge.
He said the present standoff is in stark contrast to the 1985 tragedy when armed men dressed in military fatigues fired randomly in public killing 11 people, while injuring others before robbing RM200,000 from a bank and a Malaysia Airlines Office in Lahad Datu.
In that incident, the security forces chased the attackers right to the border islands where they were believed to have come from.
