KOTA KINABALU: Former Sabah chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee believes the federal government is on the wrong track in fighting the Sulu claim by the Philippines.
Yong said through its officials, the federal government appears to be recognising an invalid land grant that allows the Philippines to continue pursuing the Sulu claim over Sabah.
The Sabah Progressive Party president said Malaysia should instead present the Brunei-Overbeck Grant, a land grant given to Baron de Overbeck and Alfred Dent on Dec 29, 1877, by the Sultan of Brunei.
"The federal government, through its officials, should immediately stop making the same mistake of recognising the invalid grant of January 22, 1878, between Sulu and Overbeck because that so-called "Sulu-Overbeck grant" of 1878 is redundant and of no effect.
"As proven by historical documents, the correct and valid grant to Overbeck is the 29 December 1877 Brunei-Overbeck grant," he said in a statement, claiming that reputable historians can substantiate the claim.
"The reason why the Sulu claim refuses to go away is because the federal government is on the wrong track in fighting the Sulu claim."
Yong said he had written to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, twice last year.
Yong said he had also raised the issue to officials from the Prime Minister's Department on May 5 last year at a resort in Kota Kinabalu.
"I (had also) pointed out that a former Attorney General (Tan Sri Tommy Thomas) had said (at a webinar organised by the Sabah Law Society in April 2022), that "no one told him" about the Dec 29, 1877 grant between Brunei and Overbeck.
"It appears that the federal government officials insist on using the wrong historical narrative by recognising the 1878 Sulu-Overbeck grant.
"If so, why? Why does the federal government insist on using the Sulu (Philippines) narrative? Why does the federal government not use the Brunei-Overeck 1877 grant that can effectively kill and bury the claim by Sulu? This is a question that has been troubling Sabahans" Yong said.
He said the relevant document is in Brunei, which he had spoken about during the International Arbitration Colloquium on July 4 last year.
To assist the federal government, Yong said he would present a copy of a letter (dated July 29, 1963) from the Brunei Sultan to the British Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations.
He said this was only one of several documents disproving the Philippines/ Sulu claim to Sabah.
In that letter, three weeks after the Malaysia Agreement of July 9, 1963, the Sultan of Brunei had queried the British about the "cession moneys that are from time to time payable to the State of Brunei in respect of a number of areas in North Borneo and Sarawak."
"That Brunei letter further proves that Brunei had never, ever passed or transferred or in any way caused any part of North Borneo (Sabah) to be passed to Sulu.
"If the federal government were to insist on the wrong narrative of recognising the Sulu-Overbeck grant of 1878, then that is a gross injustice to Malaysia, especially to Sabahans who have to bear the burden of facing the Philippines/Sulu claim."