Stop spreading rumours - CM

Malaysian authorities are continuing to work towards a peaceful resolution to a standoff with the armed Sulu gunmen at the remote Kampung Tanduo seaside village in Lahad Datu.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said the people should stop spreading rumours that would only spark uneasiness and public disturbance.

“Everyone, and I mean every one of us, should exercise a bit more responsibility,” he said after Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib briefed the Sabah Cabinet on the latest situation in the standoff.

Some 150 armed gunmen led, by Raja Azzimudie Kiram, a brother of Sultan Jamallul Kiram III, had landed and occupied the remote village some 160km from Lahad Datu town since Feb 9.

The group had, among others, demanded to be recognised as the Royal Sultanate of Sulu Army and that the Suluk community in Sabah not be deported to southern Philippines.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk V.K. Liew said the group’s demands had been overtaken by events.

“Based on historical facts, the Sulu Sultanate ceased to exist in the 1930s when the Philippines became a republic,” said Liew, a lawyer by profession and the Liberal Demo­cratic Party president. “In this respect, the question of demand does not arise at all as the dynasty has been clearly disbanded.”

In Manila, Philippine media reported that the administration officials of President Benigno Aquino III had been dispatched to convince Jamallul to recall his followers from Sabah.

Source: The Star