MP SPEAKS The claim made by the Philippines president-elect, Rodrigo Duterte, on Sabah, reminds us on how weak our position is again when it comes to geopolitics.
 
Rodrigo Duterte is only repeating what had been said by the current Philippines president Benigno Acquino III and those before them, as a popular political stance or a means to their relevance.  
 
I take the view that there is an inherent dilemma now in the Philippines as there are many of them who believe Sabah is theirs.

Notwithstanding that Sabah has been a sovereign nation all these while, which was affirmed in 1963 when North Borneo (Sabah), a nation recognised by the United Nation, decided its own future, the Philippines government has always beaten the drum of the Sabah claim.
 
The BN has led the federal government for several decades now and despite the people of Sabah having placed the full trust on security, diplomacy and interest to the federal government, we are still faced by the same claim, and this time echoed again by the incoming President of the Philippines.
 
The huge presence of many illegal immigrants in Sabah and those who become overnight Malaysian citizens albeit their questionable background, including the threats of Sulu commanders being in every district in Sabah, adds more fear and security concerns to real citizens of Sabah.

The so-called Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah, which concluded last year, had become all but just another election propaganda.

I am certain, the so-called solution will be peddled again when the election nears to blind those who hope for a solution, once and for all, for the decades-long problem.

It is really frustrating that everyone tries to find excuses for the delay (for solutions) when even the full transcripts of those who gave evidence during the RCI remained elusive from the public domain other than a summarized one.
 
My recent question in Parliament over whether action had been taken against those part of Project IC in Sabah and the alleged 600,000 identity cards issued by former National Registration Department officer Kee Dzulkifli had been cancelled, was met with a simplistic reply that action via detention and sacking of the officials involved had been made and that the 600,000 identity cards are mere speculations as only 28,510 identity cards had been cancelled.
 
I remain unconvinced by the reply and I aver that there is surely some truth to the evidence given by Kee Dzulkifli during the RCI hearing.
 
I had also asked the government in Parliament on several occasion on the status of the claim by the Philippines on Sabah and also why would we continue paying the annual cess payment?

The government’s reply again is simplistic, in that they will not recognise the claim and the payment continues to be made as it was an agreement.
 
All these are definitely not assuring Sabahans of what they had entrusted to the federal government and even the state government.
 
With this and of the recent claim by the president elect of the Philippines, I ask the Sabah government and the federal government to immediately convene both the state assembly and Parliament sitting to demand the Philippines, especially its government, to drop the claim over Sabah once and for all and reassert Sabah’s position as an equal partner of the Federation of Malaysia.
 
It is extremely disheartening to see our own government officials dining and playing usual diplomacy with those in the corridors of powers in the Philippines, who have repeatedly and unrepentantly claimed Sabah at their whims and fancies.

More so since the same Philippines government had not acted against the Tanduo intruders and conspirators in their country, which inaction seems to infer that the Philippines government may have acted complicit to what happened in Kampung Tanduo, Lahad Datu, Sabah in 2013.
 
When will this stop? When will Sabahans ever feel safe and will Sabah’s dilemma ever end.

DARELL LEIKING is the MP for Penampang and PKR vice-president.