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From August to December in l967, some 200 Tausug and
Sama Muslims aged 18 to 30 from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi were trained in a
secret camp in the island town of Simunul in Tawi-Tawi.
The training was part of a
clandestine plot to destabilize Sabah, which was annexed by Malaysia
when it gained independence from Great Britain in l963.
The plan, hatched by Ferdinand
Marcos, was codenamed Operation Merdeka. The commando unit, named
Jabidah, which would have infiltrated Sabah to start a rebellion was
led by a military adventurer, Col. Abdul Latif Martelino.
On December 30 of that year, the
Muslims were herded into a Philippine Navy vessel and brought to
Corregidor for “specialized training.”
There the Muslim recruits
discovered that their ultimate mission was to go to Sabah and fight
their Muslim brothers. The recruits demanded that they be returned
home.
The infamous Jabidah massacre
followed. As the sole survivor, Jibin Arula, later recounted, the
trainees were taken from their Corregidor barracks on the night of
March 18, 1968, brought to an airstrip and gunned down one by one.
Under cover of darkness, Arula ran and swam all the way to Cavite.
The testimony of Arula and the
expose later of the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino in the
halls of Congress, which unmasked Operation Merdeka, shocked the
Filipino nation and the world. The rest is history.
Spark for Muslim outrage
The Jabidah massacre was enough
to spark the outrage of Filipino Muslims against the Manila
government.
Led by Nur Misuari, the Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF) that was initially bankrolled by
Malaysia, waged a jihad against the central government, calling for
an independent homeland for the Bangsamoro people. Thousands were
killed during the three decades of fighting.
The MNLF finally signed a peace
accord with the government in l996. It was then believed that the
peace pact would finally bring peace to Mindanao.
But it was not so. A splinter
group, led by Hashim Salamat, refused to recognize the peace
agreement. He formed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and
waged another guerrilla war against the Manila government. Now the
MILF is believed to have a 12,000-strong fully armed militia.
If the peace accord with the MILF
would be signed, what will prevent another splinter group from doing
a Salamat and organizing yet another Muslim separatist group?
Independent Sabah
Some analysts are now saying that
had Oplan Merdeka succeeded, it would have resulted in Sabah
seceding from Malaysia, just like Singapore. Sabah could have formed
its own independent state. And this development could have helped
avoid, or at least mitigate, the problem in Mindanao.
Filipino Muslims would have lived
prosperous lives in resource-rich Sabah and they would not be
treated as illegals by the Kuala Lumpur government. The Tausugs
and Badjaos—who have known the sea lanes between Borneo and the
Sulu Archipelago as their ancestral domain—are now being deported
willy-nilly by Malaysian authorities.
This brings us to another issue
that has remained dormant but could be revived anytime: the
Philippine claim to Sabah.
Sabah, which when roughly
translated means “the land beneath the winds,” was bequeathed to
the Sultanate of Sulu by the Sultan of Brunei as a reward for
helping the latter in driving its enemies.
In l878, Baron Von Overbeck, an
Austrian partner representing the British North Borneo Co. and his
partner British Alfred Dent, leased Sabah from the Sulu Sultanate.
In return, the company provided arms to the Sultan and an annual
rental.
Up to now, the Malaysian
government, through its embassy in Manila, is paying the rental to
the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu of 5,300 ringgits or $1,590, almost
unchanged since l878.
Malaysia not impartial
The major flaw in the current
negotiations between the government and the MILF is that Malaysia,
the intermediary, is not impartial because it has always acted as a
big brother to Filipino Muslims since the MNLF days.
Malaysia is also still hurting
from the botched Operation Merdeka and the Sabah claim is still
hanging like a sword of Damocles over its head.
If the Memorandum of Agreement on
Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) is heavily loaded in favor of the MILF, it
is because the deal was crafted in Kuala Lumpur. Had the GRP-MILF
talks been held in some uninterested countries like Switzerland or
in The Netherlands, the government could have negotiated for a
fairer deal.
It is understandable that
Malaysia would prefer a Bangsamoro homeland to be set up in Mindanao
rather than in Sabah. And the more the Filipino Muslims will be
preoccupied with fighting in Mindanao, the more they will forget
about the Sabah claim.
It is not even far-fetched to
imagine that Malaysia is still supplying arms and logistics to the
MILF while brokering a peaceful settlement between the rebels and
the government.
opinion@manilatimes.net
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