Sabah, Merdeka and Aquino
BY GLENDA M.
GLORIAPOSTED ON 03/03/2013 7:43 AM | UPDATED 03/03/2013 9:53
Is it possible to understand Muslim Mindanao
without looking at Malaysia? Perhaps not. This stern neighbor has played
its hands rather wisely: feeding a Filipino rebellion on one hand,
andhelping end it on the other.Sabah has been home to thousands of
Muslims who once fought for independence under the Marcos dictatorship.
It was their refuge when the military continued to pummel them with
bombs and bullets in Mindanao. Sabah was always part of their real --
and imagined -- community. Before colonizers carved out superficial
boundaries in that part of the world, the Muslims of Sabah, Tawi-Tawi
and Sulu were one community that freely traded goods with each other,
paid unhampered visits to one another, and spoke the same language. The
imperious Sultanate of Sulu reigned over these islands.Thus while Manila
has consistently put
the Sabah claim on the back burner, the reality is that to many
Filipinos, Sabah has long been theirs. They grew up on the island, got
married there, raised their kids, and put up businesses. An estimated
65,000 Filipinos carry passports as "political refugees" in Sabah. In
the capital city of Kota Kinabalu, I once asked a former member of the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) why he had chosen to live there.
"It's our land. These are my brothers," he said. They call themselves
"Suluks" not Filipinos.At the height of the MNLF's secessionist campaign
in the 1970s and 1980s, Muslim rebels sought refuge in Sabah. In Sabah
they mapped out plans to bring down the Marcos military to its knees. In
its lush jungles they trained young recruits in guerrilla warfare.
While Nur Misuari toured the Middle East to raise funds for his
movement, his young commanders held clandestine meetings in Sabah to
plot the war against Marcos.Which begs the question, why would
Malaysia tolerate this when it could not even put up with a ragtag
group of old guards now holed up in Lahad Datu?The answer partly lies
not in Sabah or Sulu or Tawi-Tawi but in another place that keeps the
dark secrets of a bungled special operation to invade Sabah: Corregidor
Island.Jabidah, Ninoy AquinoIn March 1968 -- 45 years ago this month --
the Philippine military shot dead young Muslim recruits whom they had
trained to invade Sabah as part of Ferdinand Marcos' adventurous
pursuits at the time. The underground plot was named Oplan Merdeka
(freedom in Bahasa Melayu).Trained under a commando unit called Jabidah
(the name of a beautiful woman in Muslim lore), they were recruited from
Muslim provinces such as Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan. Army officers led
by then Maj Eduardo Martelino first taught them the rudiments of
warfare on the sleepy island of Simunul, Tawi-Tawi. A picturesque town,
Simunul is home to the first mosque in the Philippines built
in the 14th century. It is also a breath away from Semporna, an island
off Sabah. Last month, it was in Simunul where followers of the Sultan
of Sulu prepared to sail to Sabah to begin the standoff.Back then,
Simunul lacked the environment for rigorous training. Thus the Army
boarded its recruits on a ship to the forlorn, tadpole-shaped island of
Corregidor. Promised a monthly allowance, the recruits waited patiently
for cash to send to their parents back home. It never came, triggering
widespread demoralization that culminated in a petition addressed to
Marcos.The Army was ordered to fix the problem, but the situation was
doomed. The young Muslims mutinied against their training officers.
Oplan Merdeka was about to be exposed. The government panicked and
ordered the Army to silence the recruits forever in what is now
infamously known as the Jabidah massacre.A few survived (including one
who would tell the story), but more than two dozen got
killed, their bodies burned before being thrown into the sea by the
Army's elite forces on board a presidential helicopter. The senator who
did his own sleuthing and pushed for a high-profile congressional probe
on the massacre -- and Merdeka -- was no less than the President's
father, then Sen Ninoy Aquino Jr.The Jabidah massacre was the spark that
lit the Muslim rebellion. It also changed Malaysia forever.Times were
different then. The Philippines was ahead of its neighbors and was in
the best position to claim Sabah. Malaysia seemed an easy target at the
time: the Federation had just been born in 1963, Singapore had just
broken away, and Indonesia was becoming a problematic neighbor.Malaysia
took Jabidah to heart; never again would it be vulnerable to its
neighbors. Sabah began getting the attention it deserved through
projects and a huge budget.To spite Marcos, Malaysia welcomed MNLF
rebels to its fold to the extent of arming and providing them
sanctuary. Eventually the rebels got integrated into Malaysian society.
This didn't cause problems in multi-ethnic Malaysia. Because while
Marcos unleashed his sword to defeat Muslim rebels, Mohammad Mahathir
took the more sophisticated path -- discouraging Islamic extremism by
mobilizing and spending state resources to allow moderate Islam to
flourish.Teaching Misuari a lessonIts porous borders, however, made it
difficult for Malaysia to stop the entry of job-hunting Filipinos. The
number of illegal Filipino workers in Sabah reached 400,000 at one
point. This would not have been a problem if not for the 1997 financial
crisis that forced Malaysia to deport illegal Indonesian and Filipino
workers. In 1999, Zamboanga City felt the brunt as it witnessed the
arrival of a few hundred deportees via commercial ships.The situation
called for bilateral cooperation. But then President Joseph Estrada had
just thrown his support behind Mahathir’s jailed
opponent at the time, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and
this severely strained the excellent ties that both countries enjoyed
under the Ramos administration.The situation turned for the worse in
2000, when Abu Sayyaf bandits kidnapped tourists on one of Malaysia’s
prime islands, Sipadan, brought them to Sulu, and earned millions of
dollars in ransom. Malaysia deported about 700 Filipinos from Sabah
after the incident, but denied it was a retaliatory move.And then
something happened in 2001 under the Arroyo government. Malaysia's old
friend ran into trouble.Misuari quarreled with the Arroyo administration
and incited a revolt in Sulu. When the military moved against him, he
counted on one ally to save him from getting jailed. On a pump boat,
Misuari escaped to Sabah. Malaysia is a friend. Or so he thought.Shortly
after reaching the shores of Jiamperas in November 2001, the Muslim
leader who once awed the Islamic world was handcuffed
and detained by the Malaysian police. He was deported to the
Philippines in January 2002, briefly detained on charges of leading a
botched revolt in Sulu.Malaysia's move proved how it regarded Misuari
and how aware it was of its bigger priority -- to co-opt another rebel
movement that was being lured by radical Islam. Thus its decision to
host the peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front.The past offers a few lessons to all the actors
involved in the Sabah issue.First is the Merdeka trauma. To land in
Sabah via Simunul and to revive the Sabah claim through the threat of
prolonged confrontation is simply unacceptable to Malaysia.Second is the
wisdom of keeping the claim dormant for now. Even the wily Marcos
eventually dropped his hot pursuit of Sabah, setting his sights instead
on expanding Philippine voice in Southeast Asia. In 1977, during the
Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur, Marcos announced his intention to
drop the claim in the spirit of regional cooperation. He never got
beyond a verbal commitment though because politicians back home
criticized him. President Aquino's mother, Corazon Aquino, did not
revive the claim, but neither did she pursue relations with Kuala
Lumpur. It was only in 1993 when the first official visit by a
Philippine president to Malaysia was made in 30 years -- by Fidel Ramos.
He took the more nuanced route, pushing for the BIMP-EAGA economic
corridor and converting the East Asian backdoor into a business hub.Does
the Aquino administration have a plan for this area as well?Third is
the fact that the Sultanate of Sulu, which has proprietary rights over
Sabah, has always been open to a settlement. But the squabbling heirs
couldn’t agree on how to do it. Under Cory Aquino, top-level sources
told us before, Malaysia offered the sultanate at least US$70 million as
settlement. But a politician who claimed to be one of the heirs
protested, scuttling the talks. Under Ramos, Malaysia asked Philippine
officials to persuade the heirs to accept the setting up of a
“generously funded” foundation that will assist Muslim communities in
Mindanao, according to then ARMM governor Parouk Hussin. No agreement
was ever reached. (Read: Sabah as the last gold coin)Is this something
that should be pursued in the current peace process being brokered by
Malaysia or outside such parameters? (Read: Bloodshed in Sabah and the
peace process)Fourth is the ultimate question that a responsible
government needs to resolve eventually: Should it drop the claim
entirely? Under Ramos, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) officials
quietly pushed for the establishment of a consulate in Sabah so it could
make a full inventory of Filipinos with passports or work permits.
Malaysia welcomed the idea, and both countries signed an agreement on
it. But when further studied by the legal office of the DFA,
this was shot down. A consulate implies that the claim to Sabah has
been dropped.Many in government still cling to the view that Manila
should use Sabah as leverage with Malaysia in negotiating better terms
for Filipinos there. But other experts believe that pursuing the claim
has become unrealistic. To some diplomats, Manila should stop the
pretense, because this has deprived Filipinos of full-time consular
services there. Have you ever wondered why our government didn't get
much information regarding the standoff? We don't have presence
there!Fifth is the reality that while the claim is dormant, many
Filipinos consider Sabah their own. It pays to be sensitive to this.
Sabah is not just a an academic or political issue. It is about social
networks deeply rooted in the past. To confront the Sultan's bombast
with conventional political wisdom betrays narrow-mindedness. As the
recent past has proven, the Sultan of Sulu has never been known for
bold moves. For the situation to reach abloody end shows utter lack of
focus and sophistication on the part of government -- the kind that
happens when one is distracted by political noise.What can be done to
end the impasse?For one, perhaps the government should stop a
presidential wannabe from talking about Sabah as if he had credibility
to do so. And then do quiet work - preferably through the backdoor.
-Rappler.comGlenda M. Gloria wrote the book - with Marites
Dañguilan-Vitug - "Under the Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao" in
1999 which won the National Book Award. The only authoritative account
of the Jabidah massacre, it revisits the sources of conflict in Mindanao
and retraces its tortuous path to the present.
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