(CNN) -- Malaysian security forces launched an operation early Tuesday morning targeting "armed intruders" from the Philippines, Malaysian state news said.
The operation began around 7 a.m. Tuesday (6 p.m. ET Monday) in Lahad Datu on the Malaysian island of Borneo, Malaysia's official Bernama news agency reported.
The standoff began last month when more than 100 men from the mainly Muslim southern Philippines came ashore in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo, demanding to be recognized as representatives of a sultanate that has historical claims on the area.
Over the weekend, the president of the Philippines ordered the group of rebels to surrender.
"From the very start, our objective has been to avoid the loss of lives and the shedding of blood," Benigno Aquino III said in a statement Saturday. "If you have grievances, the path you chose was wrong. The just, and indeed, the only correct thing for you to do is to surrender."
The peculiar standoff has its roots in a recent landmark peace deal between Manila and Muslim rebels, according to experts on the region.
The group's claims touch on an unresolved territorial question between the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as Manila's efforts to improve relations with Islamic insurgents in the country's south after decades of violence.
Malaysian police and armed forces soon surrounded the village in the eastern Sabah district of Lahad Datu, where the men had gathered. Police officials said they were negotiating with the group in an effort to persuade its members to return to their homes in the Philippines peacefully.
Clashes in the area have claimed the lives of nine policemen and 19 "intruders," Bernama reported.
At least both the Malaysian and Philippine governments are treating this exactly as it should be: The acts of a bunch of lunatics not sanctioned by any government.
Ho-hum, should be interesting to see the more complete reports tomorrow morning. I doubt there were nil casualties amongst the force sent to end the standoff once and for all. Nor do I buy reports that the MNLF is out in force to help.
I think the Philippine government would be able to persuade them to go home, temporarily, if it could get a firm commitment from the Malaysian government to negotiate on the claim. And Malaysia should stop behaving like Hitler’s Germany and Tojo’s Japan during World War II, annexing neighboring territories with impunity.
Because of course the Malaysian claim on Sabah is sustained by jackbooted military force
I do know how to spell
AniThyng is merely the name I gave to what became my favourite Baldur's Gate II mage character
Given that elections are coming up, there is frankly a very good chance that the President's take is correct - some members of the opposition (led by the former president Arroyo who is in jail pending corruption trials) are just trying to stir up trouble especially in the Muslim areas in the south to improve their chances. The former administration was so in bed with violent loonies in the Muslim areas that they were implicated in that big massacre of journalists a couple of years ago
There is honestly very little clamor in the Philippines to get back Sabah; moreso since the "original" 1896 constitution actually specifically considered the Sultanate of Sulu to be a seperate state. Sabah belongs to Malaysia, plain and simple. But we have a lot of delusional "nationalists".
Why is the MNLF, which is itself opposed to the PH Government (Or is that the MILF, I forget which is which, how they differ and which one Malaysia covertly supported*), now pressuring PNoy for not "helping" the Sulu 'terrorists'?
Anyway, so much for Muslim Brotherhood
*OH ahhahaha, aren't those chickens coming home to roost. Way to learn the same lesson as the Americans on the "merits" of helping the enemies of your...uh...rivals...
I do know how to spell
AniThyng is merely the name I gave to what became my favourite Baldur's Gate II mage character
Everyone, media and political seems to be working hard to ignore what's strongly behind this, the huge and unresolved issue of Philippine immigrants living in terrible conditions in big shanty towns along the north Borneo coastline. Many are elevated over the water too because they can't build on land.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
The MNLF is mainly defunct now; which is why their involvement is another indication of how it's a political ploy. It's the MILF that's left.
My read on the MILF is that they don't really want to get involved in this but they risk losing "street cred" if they don't help their "allies" in Sulu. This is why their stand seems to be "Wait and see"
Not to mention they're not exactly unified and there are plenty of splinter factions who don't want peace.
Edit: Confused MNLF with MILF in some instances. Ack.
Last edited by Zinegata on 2013-03-06 12:16am, edited 1 time in total.
Sea Skimmer wrote:Everyone, media and political seems to be working hard to ignore what's strongly behind this, the huge and unresolved issue of Philippine immigrants living in terrible conditions in big shanty towns along the north Borneo coastline. Many are elevated over the water too because they can't build on land.
That may have to do with the fact that the people who brought guns into Malaysia are Tausugs; whereas the immigrants in Malaysians are mostly Bajaus.
The Bajaus do not see the Tausugs as liberators. In fact many of the Bajaus left precisely because the Tausugs caused so much mayhem in Sulu.
I've heard that the mere presence is still being used to justify the armed invasion, and I watched long program on this last year which more or less projected violence if nothing was done to resolve the issue.
Amusingly China once claimed Sulu and this part of Borneo too, but they seem to have stopped talking about that by the 1990s.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
Sea Skimmer wrote:Everyone, media and political seems to be working hard to ignore what's strongly behind this, the huge and unresolved issue of Philippine immigrants living in terrible conditions in big shanty towns along the north Borneo coastline. Many are elevated over the water too because they can't build on land.
That may have to do with the fact that the people who brought guns into Malaysia are Tausugs; whereas the immigrants in Malaysians are mostly Bajaus.
The Bajaus do not see the Tausugs as liberators. In fact many of the Bajaus left precisely because the Tausugs caused so much mayhem in Sulu.
I can imagine there are many people in the peninsular which have barely any idea of the difference. I mean, offhand I can name Kadazans, Dusun, Bajau and...uh...yeah.
I don't see how Philippine immigrants living in shanty towns has anything to do with the actions of the Sulu Sultanate as such other than being an excuse. It is an issue in Malaysian politics because of revelations that these immigrants are given citizenship in exchange for votes that benefit the ruling party at the national level, at the expense of local Sabahans and local Sabahan opposition parties.
I do know how to spell
AniThyng is merely the name I gave to what became my favourite Baldur's Gate II mage character
I went looking for maps of the different peoples involved, all I've got so far is a headache.
"Aid, trade, green technology and peace." - Hans Rosling.
"Welcome to SDN, where we can't see the forest because walking into trees repeatedly feels good, bro." - Mr Coffee
