Armed conflicts in Mindanao: Influenced by Malaysia to keep Sabah

All the events involving armed conflicts in Mindanao from 1968, 1969 and specifically in the early 70s until today between the Govt forces and Muslim rebel groups were triggered by the one standing unresolved issue between the Republic of the Philippines and Peninsular Malaysia: Sovereignty rights over Sabah or the Manila Accord. These 'events' have been "influenced" by Malaysia. 

- Malaysia commenced "influencing events" in Southern Mindanao immediately after the discovery of a plan by the Republic to take control of Sabah in 1968

- Malaysia's Tunku Abdul Razak (father of current Malaysia Prime Minister Najib) was the first PM to pour money into Muslim secessionist rebels who at the time were led by Nur Misuari (first chair of MNLF) and seconded by Hashim Salamat (founder of MILF)

- Malaysia's PM Mahathir as soon as he took over continued the exercise and improved Tunku Abdul Razak's modus operandi by modernising the Malaysian armed forces. He then poured resources after resources into and "enlarged" Muslim secessionist training camps in Sabah. Mahathir devoted a great deal of effort in the Islamisation of Sabah by allowing the influx of Muslims from all over the region and granting them Malaysia citizenship in exchange for their votes so that Barisan Nasional (his party) would remain in power. He was responsible for the nationalisation of the oil resources of Sabah and created PETRONAS that would control the industry.

- When FVR's Govt, finally concluded a peace deal with the MNLF in 1996 with the backing of the OIC, Malaysia realised that their attempts to sow trouble in Southern Mindanao through the MNLF of which they were patrons might be endangered. The MILF shunned the 1996 Peace Agreement. Mahathir trained his efforts on the break-away faction headed by Hashim Salamat aka MILF and funded and supported the rebel group.

- In 1998, President Estrada who had just been elected to the presidency, who was despised by Mahathir, decided to launch an offensive against the MILF after intel revealed that the MILF, fully armed with weapons from Malaysia (including missile systems that Mahathir had ordered earlier on) was gearing up for a full scale offensive against government military bases in the South. The AFP won.

- In 1999, the Sipadan hostage crisis took place. Sipadan is a Malaysian resort island. The hostage crisis began the long descent to hell of Estrada.

- In 2004, Gloria Macapagal accepted MILF's demand that Malaysia be the head of the monitoring team to supervise a Framework Agreement. Malaysian troops began to arrive in Southern Mindanao.

- Shortly thereafter, Senator Nene Pimentel questioned the wisdom of calling on Malaysia to oversee the proposed "peace talks" with the MILF invoking the fact that PH has a standing unresolved issue over Sabah

- In 2012, President Aquino handed over to Najib the signed "Talking points" for shared sovereignty between GPH and MILF

- In 2013, Sultanate of Sulu launched siege in Tanduo, Sabah in a bid to re-take Sabah; many Tausugs died; in September, MNLF decided to rally against the planned signing of the Malaysia-inspired wealth sharing agreement between GPH and MILF which is scheduled on 16 September, on the 50th anniversary of the illegal annexation of Sabah to the created Malaysia Federation.

The bottom line is that Malaysia has always put one over GPH in their bid to ensure that PH will never be able to turn around to re-claim Sabah.

The Catholic priest in Sabah who was at the forefront of an independent Sabah

Historiana: The Catholic priest* in Sabah who was at the forefront of an independent Sabah 

In 1990, Benjamin Basintal (in picture), a Catholic priest led a 'revolution' from within Sabah. 

Basintal was linked to a Sabah secession plot in 1990. He went missing during that year detained under Kuala Lumpur's dreaded Internal Security Act (ISA) and possibly tortured. He had been hounded and harassed continuously by Kuala Lumpur agents. The loss of Barisan Nasional in the 1990 election and the victory of Christian-dominated PBS, the Sabah political party much hated by Mahathir, was attributed to his disappearance.

Benjamin Basintal was not your typical Catholic missionary priest. He was vocal about denouncing the inequities in Sabah, the corruption of its politicians and the greed and injustice of Kuala Lumpur.

According to his relatives, Benjamin saw Sabah "with its abundant natural resources on one side and many of its people abjectly poor on the other side was a gapping wound. The state’s wealth that could help lift them out of the poverty trap was instead paying for vanity projects elsewhere in Malaysia and this was an affront to him."

Basintal left for the United States soon after his release by Kuala Lumpur's ISA. How he got to leave Sabah remains a mystery. He studied journalism and went into teaching when he returned to Sabah.

Benjamin Basintal died of organ failure last month, a few weeks away from the Sabah elections.

*NB: What most Filipinos don't know is that Sabah used to be predominantly Christian until Mahathir imported Muslim would-be voters from Indonesia and the Philippines, a project he hatched from the time he came to power in 1981 and executed for a number of years until he retired from politics in 2003. Mahathir exported Bumiputra Malayans from Peninsular Malaysia with wads of cash (I kid thee not) and promises of a good life for them if they stayed and lived in Sabah, and of course, they had to vote Barisan Nasional or BN (Mahathir's party and Najib's party today.) Sabah had to be "de-Christianised" so to speak.

Mahathir was still flooding Sabah with Bumiputras from Peninsular Malaysia while I was living in Kuala Lumpur in the 90s. I also remember too well the stories surrounding the trial of the owner and publisher of the Borneo Mail which first bannered the disappearance of Basintal. Borneo Mail's owner was charged and tried under the Printing Presses and Publications Act a charge which still carries today, a penalty of three years jail or a fine of 20,000 Malaysian ringgits or both.

~~ By Anne de Bretagne
for the Defenders of the Philippine Sabah & Spratly Claims 
30 April 2013

To read about Benjamin Basintal:  The Incident that changed Sabah 

Link to Benjamin Basintal blog www.mrbensblog-antidot.blogspot.com