Sabah, Mamasapano and sober second thoughts

THE Sabah claim is back in the news even if Mamasapano seems to suck nearly all the oxygen from every other issue.

In 1868, the Sultan of Sulu had a contract over Sabah with Austrian Gustavus Baron de Overbeck, a shadowy figure emerging bigger than life in the thick mists of Sabah’s annals. If it was a “lease” for 99 years, as has been advanced, it would have expired January 22, 1977. In 1967, Marcos said that Sabah is ours “on legal, historical and moral grounds,” and vowed “to pursue it as a matter of principle and as a matter of justice.” His then ardent irredentism later cooled.