South China Sea: Malaysia rejects Philippines’ Sabah claim in new diplomatic note
- The missive shows the row over the waterway is a complex intramural dispute that does not just pit China against Southeast Asian claimants, a source says
- Despite Manila’s resurgent public remarks about Sabah, Putrajaya’s note – its second in a month – ‘isn’t motivated by recent actions by the Philippines’
This month’s note shines a light on how the dispute is in fact a complex intramural row among all the claimants, and not one that simply pits regional giant China against Southeast Asian parties, a Malaysian source said.
The claimant states – as well as non-claimants the United States and Australia – have in recent months been using diplomatic notes to UN secretary general Antonio Guterres as a means of fleshing out their respective positions over the South China Sea, which has emerged as a proxy in the ongoing US-China rivalry.
Malaysia’s latest missive was in response to a Philippine note in March that challenged Putrajaya’s plan to establish an extended continental shelf in waters off the eastern state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo.
Manila in its note raised two key objections, saying Putrajaya was claiming waters in the Kalayaan island group it claims as its own, and that Malaysia’s plan was also based on projections from Sabah – over which the Philippines has never relinquished sovereignty. Malaysia’s control over Sabah is largely undisputed, though Philippine officials from time to time publicise Manila’s position that the region is part of its Sulu province.
Regarding the latter objection, the Malaysian note verbale said Putrajaya “has never recognised the Republic of the Philippines’ claim to the Malaysian state of Sabah, formerly known as North Borneo”.
The source, who has knowledge of official thinking on the matter, said the note about the Philippines’ claim had been in the works for a while.
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“The Philippines protested Malaysia’s submission, so it was a matter of time before Malaysia responded, just like we did in 2009,” the source said, referring to a flurry of diplomatic notes that took place when Malaysia and Vietnam jointly submitted to the UN a claim to establish a continental shelf in a different part of the South China Sea.
“This isn’t motivated by recent actions by the Philippines – Malaysia would have sent a response regardless.”
While claimants from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have largely tried to present a united front in the face of Chinese assertions in the waters, parts of the dispute required an airing beyond closed-door discussions, Malaysian foreign policy scholar Ngeow Chow Bing said.
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“Resolving these disputes and presenting a common united front between the Asean claimant states is actually easier said than done,” said Ngeow, director of the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya. “Of course, the Asean solidarity is real, but difficulties in resolving disputes between them are real and not to be underestimated too.”
Malaysia and the Philippines have exchanged sharp words in recent weeks after Philippine foreign minister Teddy Locsin Jnr wrote on social media in July that Sabah “was not in Malaysia”.
He was echoing Manila’s long-standing view that the sovereignty of Sabah, formerly administered by Britain, passed over to the Philippines following the end of colonial rule.
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Malaysia’s foreign minister Hishammuddin Hussein reacted angrily to Locsin’s comments, with the Philippine ambassador in Malaysia demarched over the issue.
Also irritating Malaysia is a plan by a Philippine congressman to amend passports to include a map that would feature Sabah as well as the associated exclusive economic zone. On Monday, the proposal was approved by the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee.
Malaysia’s deputy foreign minister Kamarudin Jaffar told parliament this week that while the government was monitoring the development, it was of the belief that the passport change was not the official stance of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.
