So-called Sulu heirs will continue claims on Malaysia’s foreign assets if govt remains unstable, says Azalina

KUALA LUMPUR: As long as the present government isn’t stable, the so-called heirs of the Sulu Sultanate will continue rattling the country by making claims on Malaysia’s foreign assets, says Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.

“Remember here, as long as they see that Malaysia isn’t united and is politically unstable, they will attack us.

“That is why we must heed the King’s decree, we must show to the people that we can lead and bring good to the country,” said the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) during her winding-up speech on the motion of thanks to the Royal Address in Parliament on Thursday (Feb 23).

Azalina’s remarks roused up MPs in the House who began thumping on their respective desks.

Azalina also said the claims made by the self-proclaimed Sulu heirs were meant to spook Malaysians, citing a recent Singaporean documentary on the issue.

“The documentary said they were Filipinos. This is an issue of sovereignty and if it’s indeed about sovereignty, then we should be fighting in the courts about sovereignty, not commercial arbitration.

“They are threatening our foreign assets because they want to spook Malaysians,” said Azalina.

“If we are not stable as a government, they will threaten our assets and not just the ones under PETRONAS. They are looking into it,” added Azalina.

Azalina also said there will be a special briefing to explain the issue to backbenchers and Opposition MPs in Parliament next Tuesday.

“I will head to Sabah the following day to brief the state assemblymen there,” said Azalina, who also noted that it was the 10-year anniversary since the Lahad Datu invasion.

Among the reasons that led to the recent claims by the self-proclaimed heirs of the Sulu Sultanate was that Putrajaya stopped paying the cession money of RM5,300 a year to the heirs since 2013.

Malaysia stopped paying the cession money following the Lahad Datu armed incursion.

The RM5,300 cession money was part of the 1878 agreement signed by then-Sulu sultan Jamal Al Alam, Baron de Overbeck and the then maharaja of Sabah and the British North Borneo Company's Alfred Dent.

Malaysia took over the payments when it became the successor of the agreement following Sabah's independence and the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

On Feb 17, PETRONAS said in a statement that claims by the purported Sulu heirs on two of its subsidiaries in Luxembourg were baseless and it would continue to defend its position in the legal aspect.