Putrajaya must respond to foreign court ordering it to pay RM63 bil to Sulu Sultanate

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Putrajaya must respond to foreign court ordering it to pay RM63 bil to Sulu Sultanate heirs: Leiking

KOTA KINABALU – The RM63 billion claim made by the descendants of now defunct Sulu Sultanate must be answered by Putrajaya, said Warisan deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking.

Speaking to The Vibes, the Penampang MP said that the issue is not something that Kota Kinabalu can reply directly as it is a federal matter, after the public received deafening silence from Sabah’s political circles.

“This is not a case for Sabah to handle because matters involving sovereignty, international representation for Malaysia and security matters are all under the federal government.

“The most is in Parliament which is now ongoing and the MPs could question what is the government going to do.

“I think the federal government should respond to this,” said Leiking, adding that Sabah itself does not have a foreign affairs ministry.

Earlier, a Malaysiakini article stated that yesterday, Spanish news website La Información reported that Spanish arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa had issued an award of RM62.59 billion in an arbitration court in Paris, France.

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Does Malaysia have to pay billions to Sulu heirs?

PETALING JAYA: News about the Malaysian government being instructed by a French arbitration court to pay at least RM62.59 billion (US$14.92 billion) to the descendants of the last Sulu sultan has created a buzz on social media.

The arbitrator, Gonzalo Stampa, ruled on Feb 28 that Malaysia violated the 1878 agreements between the old Sulu kingdom in the Philippines and a representative of the British North Borneo Company that used to administer what is now Sabah.

The arbitration process originated in Spain, but has now moved to Paris.

FMT takes a closer look into the issue and its consequences.

What is the dispute about?
The dispute itself concerns the 1878 Deed of Cession between the then sultan of Sulu, Sultan Jamal al Alam, and Baron de Overbeck, the then Maharaja of Sabah, and British North Borneo Company’s Alfred Dent.

Under the agreement, Jamal ceded sovereignty over large parts of Sabah – from the northwest coast and extending beyond the east coast as far as the Sibuco River in the South – to Dent and Overbeck.

In exchange Dent, Overbeck and their future heirs were to pay the heirs of the sultan 5,000 Mexican dollars annually.

In 1936, the last formally recognised sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram II, died without heirs and payments temporarily ceased until North Borneo High Court chief justice Charles F Macaskie named nine court-appointed heirs in 1939.

Payments to the heirs continued into modern times as Malaysia became the successor of the agreement following Sabah’s independence and the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

But in 2013, after the Lahad Datu incursion, Malaysia stopped paying the Sultan of Sulu’s heirs their annual compensation, which is equivalent to RM5,300.

For the record, in Tommy Thomas’ book “My Story: Justice in the Wilderness”, he said there was no evidence linking the Sulu descendants who were receiving the annual fees from Malaysia to the armed invaders into Lahad Datu.

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Malaysia says it does not recognise French court’s US$14b award to Sulu Sultanate heirs

KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — Malaysia will not recognise the recent arbitration proceedings and subsequent award by a court in France to the purported heirs of the Sulu Sultanate, and maintains its sovereign immunity, said the Foreign Ministry and attorney general (AG) in a joint statement here today.

The statement said that the Spanish High Court had decided in June 2020 that due process leading to the appointment of the arbitrator was not properly served or consistent with the Spanish High Court of Justice of Madrid’s case laws on the service of process on sovereign states.

“As a consequence of the Nullification Decision, Dr Stampa is not an arbitrator in the purported arbitration proceedings and, therefore, all his decisions, including the Final Award, are null and void.

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AGC explains why Malaysia was not present at Sulu arbitration

PETALING JAYA: The claim by heirs of the Sulu sultanate is not commercial in nature and therefore cannot be subject to arbitration, says the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).

In explaining why there was no representative sent to the arbitration proceedings in Spain, the AGC said the 1878 Agreement “contains no arbitration agreement”.

It also said that Putrajaya does not recognise the claim.

“We further stress that the identities of the heirs are doubtful and have yet to be verified,” it said.

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