KOTA KINABALU: Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah, Sarawak Affairs and Special Duties) Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali has urged all parties, especially local leaders, to be more careful in issuing statements on territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Federation of Malaysia.
He said any action or statement issued without careful study and scrutiny could be the basis for any outside party to dispute over the sovereignty of the country.
“We do not want any statement and action to be manipulated and trigger any outside party to have grounds for sovereignty disputes. Leave it to the authorities to determine any action involving the sovereignty of the country based on the laws, regulations and procedures in force.
There are no unilateral statements and actions that can cast aside or ignore the nation’s main interests,” he told reporters after an interactive session with Sabah Students Consultative Council here today.
He said this when asked to comment on Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal’s proposal for the government to bring the case of a group claiming to be the heirs of the Sulu Sultanate claim on Sabah to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an absolute settlement.
Yesterday, Mohd Shafie, who is also Semporna Member of Parliament was reported as saying the government needs to take firm measures to prevent the so-called heirs of the Sulu Sultanate from putting any claim on Sabah.
Armizan said the ICJ’s jurisdiction is to hear and adjudicate legal disputes between states.
As such, the matter does not fall under the purview of the ICJ because the claim by the party was made by a group of individuals and not a country, he said.
Looking at the cause of action, Armizan said a legal dispute requires a cause of action and a claim over one country against another country or two countries have overlapping claims under the law.
“In the case of Sabah, there is nothing that Malaysia needs to claim, we do not claim the rights and territories of any country. Malaysia is Sabah, and Sabah is Malaysia,” he said.
He said the Federation of Malaysia was established through the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and it was an international agreement recognised and registered at the United Nations (UN) as UN Treaties on Sept 29, 1970.
The recognition of the sovereignty of the Federation of Malaysia therefore means that Sabah is recognised as a sovereign region within the Federation of Malaysia, he said.
On June 8, Malaysia secured a landmark victory when a Paris Court of Appeal upheld Malaysia’s challenge against the partial award rendered on May 25, 2020 by Dr Gonzalo Stampa in the case filed by eight citizens of the Philippines, who are purported heirs of the Sulu Sultanate.
The Sulu group took legal action through the international arbitration process against Malaysia in four countries, namely Spain, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and the Malaysian government has and is taking various legal countermeasures against them.
— BERNAMA
