Govt must make clear Sabah is part of M’sia, says lawyer

KOTA KINABALU: The Federal Government must take a clear stand that Sabah is part of Malaysia and no one should claim otherwise, said lawyer Datuk Fuad Ahmad.

Fuad, who is a member of the special secretariat dealing with claims by the self-proclaimed Sulu heirs, said the question of Sabah’s sovereignty must be answered clearly once and for all.

“The issue of Sabah’s sovereignty is not complex. Sabah is Malaysia and Malaysia is Sabah,” he said in voicing his personal views on this matter after a briefing on the latest status pertaining to the Sulu claims here yesterday.

He felt that as long as the Philippines government continues politicising the sovereignty issue, claims on Sabah would be made over and over again.

Fuad, who is also legal adviser to the state government, felt that the Federal Government was not firm when answering questions pertaining to Sabah’s status.

Touching on the international legal suits by the so-called Sulu claimants on Sabah, he said the case is due to and based on a single letter issued by the former federal Attorney General dated June 16, 2019, which admitted that there is a valid agreement between the Sulu heirs and Malaysia regarding Sabah and that Malaysia was in the wrong.

He said Malaysia – in 2019 and 2020 – did not adequately defend against the Sulu heirs’ claim in Spain and France, and as a result, important historical facts have been left out of the proceedings.

Fuad said Malaysia isnow resisting the Sulu claim based on the illegality of the French arbitral award and the fact that the Spanish court had ruled that the appointment of the arbitrator was invalid, among others.