KOTA KINABALU: The Federal Government should no longer recognise or acknowledge the invalid Jan 22, 1878 Sulu-Overbeck grant that purportedly gave the colonial trading company rights to Sabah, says former chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee (pic).
This would be a crucial step towards resolving the Sulu claim on Sabah once and for all, he added.
“Putrajaya should immediately stop making the mistake of recognising the invalid grant between Sulu and Overbeck because it is redundant and of no effect.
“As proven by historical documents, the correct and valid grant to Overbeck is the Dec 29, 1877 Brunei-Overbeck grant,” he said, adding that reputable historians could substantiate this.
“The reason why the Sulu claim refuses to go away is because the Federal Government is on the wrong track in fighting it,” he said in a statement on Friday (Nov 15).
He said he had written twice to Law Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, on March 17 and 31 last year, to outline the critical historical facts.
“I 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), to my utter shock, that ‘no one told him’ about the Brunei-Overbeck grant,” he added.
Yong said that it appears that federal officials keep using the wrong historical narrative by referring to the Sulu-Overbeck grant.
“If so, why? Why does the Federal Government insist on using the Sulu (Philippines) narrative? Why does it not (cite) the Brunei-Overeck 1877 grant that can effectively kill and bury the claim by Sulu?
“This is a question that has been troubling Sabahans,” said Yong, a nominated assemblyman and Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president.
He said during several meetings, he had told government officials that their timeline starting in 1878 was factually wrong.
“They should use the 1877 (Brunei-Overbeck deal) timeline.
“I told also other federal officials at the International Arbitration Colloquium at SICC on July 4 last year that the relevant document is in Brunei.
“There is no need for Putrajaya to travel all over Europe fighting the Sulu claim. The answer is in Brunei,” he said.
According to Yong, a copy of a July 29, 1963 letter from the then Brunei Sultan to the British secretary of state for Commonwealth relations is one of several documents disproving the Philippines/Sulu claim to Sabah.
“In that letter, three weeks after the Malaysia Agreement of July 9, 1963, none other than the Sultan of Brunei himself 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 letter (also shows) that Brunei had never passed or transferred, or in any way caused any part of North Borneo (Sabah) to be passed, to Sulu.
“The Federal Government (using) the wrong narrative of recognising the Sulu-Overbeck grant of 1878… is a gross injustice to Malaysia, especially to Sabahans who have to bear the burden of facing the Philippines/Sulu claim,” Yong said.
