Explainer | Why are the Philippine heirs of a sultan clashing with Malaysia over Sabah?
- The heirs are the descendants of the Sultan of Sulu, who entered into a deal in 1878 with a colonial British trading company to exploit resources
- Malaysian PM Ismail Sabri has said the country will not budge ‘an inch’ over Sabah, and will protect its ‘security and sovereignty’
The heirs sought legal recourse in a French arbitration court following Malaysia’s move to stop paying the money granted them under the 144-year-old agreement in which the sultanate surrendered its claim over what is now the oil-rich Malaysian state of Sabah.
Malaysia, which inherited the colonial agreement, terminated it unilaterally following a 2013 incursion by Sulu armed militants.
While arbitration started in 2017, it rarely made a splash in Malaysia, where the Sulu issue is seen more as a historical quirk than a serious threat to the country’s sovereignty.
This was until the French court’s shock ruling, which raised questions about how Malaysia – an independent, sovereign nation – could be threatened by the heirs of a defunct sultanate in a small archipelago 1,000km south of Manila.
Who are the claimants?
The 1878 agreement between Sulu Sultan Jamal Al Alam and Hong Kong-based Gustavus Baron von Overbeck, along with the British North Borneo Company, guaranteed the sultan and his heir a yearly payment of 5,000 pesos (about US$88 in today’s money) – in perpetuity – for ceding his sovereignty over a large swathe of Sabah.