Shafie Apdal says ‘never in Spain’, denies involvement with ‘Sulu heirs’ staking claim on Sabah

KOTA KINABALU, March 23 – Sabah Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal today denied any involvement with the controversial heirs of the defunct Sulu sultanate who are claiming a stake on Sabah.

He also denied claims that he was in Spain during an arbitration hearing they initiated in 2019 when he was Sabah chief minister.

Instead, the Parti Warisan president criticised Malaysia’s former foreign minister Datuk Anifah Aman and Sabah Progressive Party president Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee who recently suggested that he had interfered in the arbitration process and blamed him for the progress of the case at an international level.

“They have been trying to insinuate my personal involvement with the heirs by saying that I was in Spain when the case came up in 2019.

“I was never there in Spain and to my knowledge no Sabah officials had gone to Spain over the case. I believe Wisma Putra and the federal Attorney General’s Chambers handled the matter and stopped the bid by the ‘heirs’ to get a judgment in Madrid,” he told reporters here today.

Shafie said they should read the explanation by Wisma Putra and the AGC on earlier this month as well as the statement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar on the issue following the Paris Court decision which made it clear that the matter was handled by the federal government.

“Neither Sabah nor I was involved.

“Both Anifah and Yong are not qualified persons to give views on the Sulu claim. They lack legal understanding of the matter and instead make press statements which amount to disinformation. All intended to mislead people and glorify themselves,” he said.

Shafie said Anifah knew that the Philippine government does not recognise the now defunct “Sulu Sultanate” and had called them “terrorists” and “criminals” during the incursion in 2013 at Lahad Datu on Sabah’s east coast.

“Nobody nor any government will recognise them and their claim on Sabah does not make any sense at all,” he said, adding that the issue should be given top priority to be resolved by the federal government.

“It is our stand that neither the Philippines nor any self-claimed heirs to the dissolved/unrecognised sultanate have any legal right to demand or make claims on Sabah.

“Whatever claims by Manila or the heirs directly or indirectly should not be entertained as Sabah, under the Malaysian Federation, is an independent country,” he said.

Shafie said that a sovereign matter such as this should be resolved by Putrajaya and Wisma Putra, and not just left on the backburner.

He said the French arbitration court’s decision to award RM62 billion last month to the alleged heirs of the Sulu sultanate was shocking and how the case was moved to France by the same Spanish arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa.

“But this issue should not be politicised,” he said.