Malaysia designates self-proclaimed heir to defunct Sulu sultanate as terrorist
Fuad A Kiram has been linked to the Royal Sulu Force, which dispatched militants to intrude into eastern Sabah in 2013.
SABAH: Malaysia has designated one of the self-proclaimed heirs of the defunct Sulu sultanate in the southern Philippines involved in a legal dispute over the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah as a terrorist.
Khairul Dzaimee Daud (pictured, right), director-general of the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Department’s legal affairs division, said the home ministry has listed Fuad A Kiram (pictured, left) as a terrorist.
He said Fuad has been linked to the Royal Sulu Force (RSF), an entity also classified as a terrorist group under Section 66B of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
The classification took effect from April 6.
Fuad is one of the eight people claiming to be descendants of the Sulu sultan who secured a disputed arbitration award against Malaysia last year.
Khairul said the unity government would be taking a new approach in dealing with the Sulu heirs’ claim.
“Previously, the approach (to deal with the case) was in the form of ‘firefighting’ with regards to the countries involved,” he said at a press conference in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya on Tuesday (Apr 11).
He said, previously, the government would appeal against decisions by foreign courts and seek to set aside the awards granted.
However, he said under the new leadership, the approach had been changed to an “offensive” mode, adding that “the best defence is (to) attack”.
When asked why Malaysia was only declaring the classification now, Khairul Dzaimee said there were legal procedures that needed to be adhered to prior to execution.
Khairul also said the Cabinet had also agreed to the appointment of a UK-based public relations firm to manage the global narrative and media strategy regarding the case. However, he did not reveal the name of the firm.
He added that the legal affairs division would engage with stakeholders in Sabah on the case.
He also said Wisma Putra had sent a diplomatic note to the 171 countries where a US$14.92 billion (RM62.59 billion) award granted by the French arbitration court to the self-proclaimed heirs of the last Sulu sultan was enforceable under the New York Convention.
Khairul said the home minister would also make a visit to the four countries involved in the arbitration of the case, namely France, Spain, Luxembourg and Netherlands, to explain to his counterparts the issues and the facts surrounding the claim.
The RSF dispatched hundreds of armed men from Sulu in 2013 to parts of eastern Sabah to stake their territorial claim, resulting in a bloody standoff that saw 10 members of Malaysian security forces and dozens of the Sulu militants killed.
Malaysia, after the incursion, secured eastern Sabah by designating it as a special security zone named as the Eastern Sabah Security Zone and formed a multiagency command, the Eastern Sabah Security Command or Esscom, to secure the Esszone.
However, apparently, the Sulu claimants have changed tactics from that of armed confrontation to an international breach-of-contract claim to pursue their interests over Sabah which they said was leased by their ancestors to a British trading company in 1878.
In their bid to enforce the US$14.9 billion arbitration award, the purported Sulu heirs had attempted to seize Malaysia’s oil firm Petronas’s assets in Luxembourg, assets in the Netherlands, and have reportedly also eyed the Malaysian embassy’s buildings in Paris, France.