Malaysia’s Defense Minister Zahid Hamidi shows a picture of dead Filipino gunmen at Tanduo Village after the air and ground assault launched on Tuesday against up to 300 invaders. AFP PHOTO
MALAYSIAN security forces may soon find themselves battling a growing number of angry Muslim fighters from Mindanao as thousands of battle-tested members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are preparing to sail to Malaysia to support the followers of the Sulu sultanate who are now being hunted in Sabah.
While MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari had denied that he had anything to do with the crossing over of hundreds of followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram 3rd to the island of Borneo, he said that his men will not hesitate to fight alongside the followers of the sultanate if Malaysia will continue its assault against the Filipinos.
“We have no choice but to reinforce the royal sultanate in Sabah if President Aquino cannot guarantee to help Sultan Kiram and his family,” he added.
“Ito ba ang sinasabi ni President Aquino na long lasting peace para sa Mindanao? Papaano mo ma achieve ang long lasting peace kung ang kapwa mo Filipino ay ginigyera ng mga dayuhang gustong maghari-harian sa Sabah? Walang ibang tutulong sa pamilya ng royal sultan kundi MNLF lamang dahil ang pangulo ng Pilipinas ay wala nang pakialam mamatay man ang kanyang kapwa Filipino sa Sabah [Is this the long lasting peace that President Aquino pledged for Mindanao? How can you achieve peace when your fellow Filipino is being killed by foreigners who want to rule Sabah? Only the MNLF can help the sultan because the President does not care if Filipinos are dying in Sabah],” Misuari said.
Commanders of the Islamic group confirmed that dozens of their members are now in Sabah to reinforce the group led by the sultan’s brother Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram and thousands more are set to join them.
MNLF commander Muhajab Hashim said that thousands of their battle-hardened fighters have expressed interest in joining the fight in Sabah.
“Many have slipped through the security forces. They know the area like the back of their hands because they trained there in the past,” Hashim said.
“We are expecting more of them to join [the fighting] even if our official instruction is for them to refrain from going,” he added.
He, however, could not say how many MNLF fighters had managed to slip through naval cordons set up by the Philippines and Malaysia.
Hashim is chairman of the MNLF’s Islamic Command Council overseeing all the group’s armed forces, which was meant to disarm as part of the 1996 peace pact but never fully complied.
He said that although MNLF leaders had not officially instructed their men to sail to Malaysia, they fully supported the sultan’s efforts to reclaim the Malaysian state of Sabah as his territory.
“MNLF fighters are adherents of the sultan, we are followers. So there is more than an alliance,” he said. “We feel very strongly against the attacks against our brothers from Sulu.”
Sources said that the MNLF may deploy as many as 40,000 fighters if the assault on the sultan’s men in Sabah will not stop.
Misuari, who visited Barangay Pangyan in the town of Glan in Sarangani province earlier this week, blamed President Benigno Aquino 3rd for the escalation of the crisis, saying the President neglected his duty as head of state and abandoned his own people in Malaysia.
He said that instead of helping Kiram, Aquino sided with Malaysia.
“The President himself threatened the family of the royal sultan, instead of helping them come up with a formal peace dialogue with Malaysia. Anong klaseng Presidente ito ng Pilipinas? Dapat tulungan nya ang mga kapwa Filipino dahil ginigiyera na sila ng Malaysian government [What kind of President do we have? He should have come to the assistance of the Filipinos who are being attacked by Malaysia],” Misuari told reporters.
Terrorists
Meanwhile, the sultanate of Sulu on Wednesday lambasted the Malaysian government for labeling the Royal security forces led by Rajah Mudda Agbimuddin Kiram as “terrorists.”
The sultan said that the Malaysian security forces are the terrorists because they are using “disproportionate” force, including fighter aircraft and artilleries, against them.
“Terorista bang matatawag ang taong nasa lugar nila? Terorista ba ang taong nasa bahay nila, ang nasa sariling homeland [Do you call people in their homeland terrorists?],” Kiram told reporters.
“We are not terrorists. We do not spouse violence. We are the landlords of North Borneo asking the squatter tenants to vacate the leased property. The Philippine government’s insensitive stand on the Sultanate of Sulu’s aspiration to settle and reclaim their homeland has emboldened Prime Minister Najib Razak to give the order and initiate a violent and barbaric offensive attack against Rajah Mudda’s group,” Princess Sitti Jacel Kiram, the sultan’s daughter, told reporters.
“Now, who is the terrorist? The description of terrorism is when a superior force, utilizing the air force, navy, the army and the police force to annihilate an inferior force of 200 whose only action is to defend their belief and rights,” she added.
The terrorist label, Jacel said, is meant to prevent international intervention on the issue.
The sultanate earlier said that they would ask the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Conference to mediate to help end the clashes which have already killed more than two dozen people.
Malaysia’s state-run Bernama News Agency in a statement claimed that Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario agreed to the terrorist label for the sultan’s followers.
But the Foreign Affairs department said del Rosario may have been misquoted.
In a statement sent by Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez, the department said that del Rosario only agreed to call “terrorist attacks” reports that said Malaysian police were “brutally mutilated and desecrated” in Semporna.
The Foreign Affairs chief held a meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman on Tuesday.
“According to [Philippine] Ambassador [Eduardo] Malaya who was present at the meeting, the report is out of context and the secretary did not label the Filipino group as ‘terrorist,’” Hernandez said.
Traitor
Also on Wednesday, the militant youth group Anakbayan condemned President Aquino for “treason.”
“Aquino has clearly committed treason when he did nothing as Malaysian forces attacked the Filipinos in Sabah,” Anakbayan national chairman, Vencer Crisostomo, said in a separate statement.
“From the beginning, Aquino failed to take a “sane, reasonable stand” regarding the Sabah claim. He essentially gave the green light to the Malaysian government to proceed and massacre the Filipinos in Sabah. This is unforgivable, blood is on his hands,” he added.
Crisostomo said that Aquino must call strongly on the Malaysian government and the international community to stop the massacre of Filipinos instead of coming up with “conspiracy theories.”
“The real conspiracy here is between Aquino and the Malaysian government, conniving to dispossess the Philippines and the Sultanate of the rightful claim to Sabah,” he said.
“The government should opt for dialogue and diplomacy. Aquino should stop endorsing the attacks and stand for the interest of our people. Lives are at stake,” the youth leader added.
No support
The President, however, said that the Philippine government will not support the Kirams for their wrong assertion of their Sabah claim.
Aquino said that the Sabah issue should be discussed in a peaceful manner.
“Nagkakaroon tayo ng propaganda war. Kayo po testigo, nagmakailang ulit na po akong nakikiusap na kung pupuwede lumikas doon, bumalik na muna dito at pag-usapan natin ang problema niyo, sa ulit, mapayapa at
mahinahon na pamamaraan [What’s happening is a propaganda war. I’ve talked to them [the followers of Sultan Jamalul Kiram 3rd] several times, that if they could leave, we could talk about the problem peacefully],” he said
“Mali ho ba ‘yung mungkahing ‘yon? Tama ho ba ‘yung sinusugsog ng ilan na dapat suportahan natin ‘yung mga nandoon na may dala-dalang armas, na nagkaroon na ng patayan? [Is that wrong? Is what they’re doing right, that we should support them as they carry arms? When there has already been killings?],” he added.
The President worried that the issue could damaged relations with Malaysia, saying that the Kirams are putting the country’s relationship between the two countries in peril.
With reports from Catherine S. Valente, Bernice Camille Bauzon and AFP
Source : The Manila Times.net
