National Heroes Day
My paper on Breaking the Stalemate on the Sabah claim has just come out in full in the press.
I have not written of it, but because of the Sabah claim, one of the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu, Sultan Ombra Amilbangsa, husband of Piandao Kiram, organized an illegal armed force to invade Sabah and take control of it by force—in 1968.
This was the Jabidah force that the Malaysians suspected was organized by the Philippine government to take over Sabah by force. Actually, the force under Lt. Col. [Eduardo] Martelino which was being trained in Corregidor that resulted in the shootings among the men of that force and the escape of many back to Sulu, was a defensive force along the lines of a Regional Self-Defense Force for Sulu and Tawi-Tawi—defensive precisely against the Mindanao Independence Movement that was openly supported and led by Gen. Udtog Matalam of Cotabato.
Martelino may have had other unauthorized ideas. Again these ideas along the lines of Sultan Amilbangsa’s plan were generated by the Sabah claim.
The intelligence reports on the Malaysia activities in training, organizing, arming and launching the Moro National Liberation Front are attached as compiled in 1977.
But the background goes all the way back to 1968 after the fall from office (as Prime Minister) of Tungku Abdul Rahman. He was chosen by the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia as Secretory General to organize the association of Islamic states to advance the interest of the Islamic religion and those of the Islamic faith. He stayed in Saudi Arabia for three years. When I met him in Kuala Lumpur (he came to see me at the hotel where all the heads of state and heads of government stayed during the Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] Summit Conference August 3-8, 1977) he confirmed these facts.
Apparently this was the period when the Moro National Liberation Front was conceived, organized and trained; and the support of Libya obtained.
Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore casually told me that he had warned the Malaysian leader that the organization of insurgency in southern Philippines by Malaysia would get out of control. He told me this more than once in January 1977 on his second visit to the Philippines on his way to Japan.
No Official Gazette entry for this day.
It is unknown where this text comes from because this entry is missing.
At the same time Chief Minister (then) of Sabah Tun Mustapha was the actual leader of the secessionist movement. For us the opposition Berjaya Party of Sabah was to openly charge during the political campaign for the local Sabah Parliament in 1966 which would decide the Chief Ministership, Tun Mustapha actually planned to use the Moro National Liberation Front to violently coalesce Sabah and the Philippine southern provinces of Mindanao, Palawan, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi into a separate state ruled by him.
It was, therefore, necessary to work for the defeat of Tun Mustupha discreetly, we managed to help bring about his downfall. Up to now I cannot be convinced that he had nothing to do with the death of his successor, Chief Minister Stephen Fuad in an airplane crash.
Anyway, the present Chief Minister, Harris Saleh, is cooperative.