here’s a website i found interesting http://www.sandakan.com/
also http://www.nzz.ch/english/background/background2000/background0001/bg000122sabah.html
the phillipine government is again stirring up issues about their claim on sabah, which they also call the phillipine north borneo, with sandakan (of all places) as its capital.
i suppose the whole issue surfaced again in light of the recent findings of oil fields off the coast of sabah – coffeeshop rumours here have it that the underground reserve were bigger than that of Kuwait. sounds rather farcical, but if one were to look at the oil reserves of neighbouring Brunei, which is only about one-fifth of sabah’s size, the gossip doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
i’m rather impartial on this issue – if really sabah belonged to the phillipines i’d be happy to see it under the republic’s flag, but the fact seems to suggests that well, they don’t have a case. in fact, i couldn’t help laughing reading most of the over-emotional and shady articles on the website.
while it maybe true that malaysia still pays a laughable 5,300 ringgit as an annual rent for sabah, nobody cared to mention the original agreement between the very astute sultan of sulu (jolo) and some colonial pigs which stated that the 'lease' (padjak) was to last ‘for as long as the moon and the sun exist’, and was later turned into a 'cession' by one alfred dent.
besides, who the fuck gives two hoots about the sultan of sulu? even his claim on the throne is questionable. the incompetent bastard rules over an imaginary kingdom which has ceased to exist. he and his motherfucking cronies are nothing but idiotic trouble-makers who spawn morons like the abu sayaff and nur misuari of the moro national liberation front.
the mnlf want to raise arms against malaysia? one will be inclined to suspect that most of their arms actually come from the aid of malaysia itself, whose government secretly protect them for one reason or another. i’ve heard of certain ‘restricted’ island around sandakan which secretly harbour these terrorists under special arrangement with the malaysian government, and believe it to be true. the marcos government in 1972 secretly trained the moro’s muslim army for possible intrusion into sabah but what happened? they mutinied and all but one of them was executed in what came to be known as the ‘jabidah massacre’.
a few reports on the rape of filipino detainees on the website also appeared doubtful and shifty. it said the women were brought ‘upstairs’ by the tawau police for their dastardly act, but i know where the detention centre (locals call it the ‘penampungan’) in tawau is, and it only has a ground floor. maybe it did happen, elsewhere perhaps – corrupt despicable dogs are not uncommon in the police force but one thing is for sure as far as i’m concerned – it’s nearly impossible to find young filipino women in tawau or sandakan who’s not a whore or a bargirl or a masseuse.
articles from the phillipines kept mentioning the 'tausugs' and 'samals' and 'bajaus' as the peoples of sabah. both malaysia and the phillipines are reluctant to claim these landless people as their own but my perception of them is that they are clearly filipinos in appearence, languange and culture. in any case, they are not the majority - the kadazans, dusuns and muruts are the true indigenuous peoples of sabah and it is their view on the fate of sabah that should really matter.
whatever it is, no sabahan in his right mind would ever want to have anything to do with the phillipines, let alone join them. malaysia may not be perfect, government officials are corrupt and the laws are discriminatory, but look at the phillipines for god’s sake. look at zamboanga and mindanao and all those pirate islands around them. it really is no surprise why sabahans have such strong negative perceptions on filipinos – just mention the word and she how they cringe, or shrug their shoulders in disgust. my personal estimate would be that almost 60% of the crimes in the state are commited by these rascals, with another 30% by fucking indonesian immigrants. i’m not saying that the sabahans are angels but to be completely honest, i’ve been very impressed by their friendliness and easy-going nature ever since i landed on these shores. without these aliens, the state would be practically crime-free.
this will sound offensive to filipinos elsewhere, but the general view of the average sabahan on filipinos is this – the males are thieves and murderers, the women whores and the children dirty harassing street urchins.
although i detest the federal government effort to strengthen its influence (and muslim culture) on sabah - particularly in recent years, i don’t think anybody could argue that she’d be better off being part of the phillipines. if there were to be any referendum again to choose between joining malaysia or the phillipines, the result i believe would be unanimous.
