Kuala Lumpur: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration never discussed the payment demands of the Sulu sultanate for Sabah, nor the letter sent to them by former Attorney General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas in 2019, Utusan Malaysia reported today.
The Malay daily cited two members of the PH Cabinet, former finance minister Lim Guan Eng, and former entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof, as confirming no discussions on the Sulu sultanate's demands took place.
According to Redzuan, the PH Cabinet only discussed the Pulau Batu Puteh issue between Malaysia and Singapore.
"I feel that in Cabinet meetings, we only talked about Pulau Batu Puteh, not about the demands of the Sulu sultanate," he was quoted saying.
Lim told Utusan Malaysia that the Finance Ministry during his tenure never settled any outstanding payments as recommended in the letter sent by Thomas.
However, he also did not rule out the payment was likely to be approved administratively at the ministry.
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"We didn't pay and get informed at all. But this amount is not large because it is not up to RM50,000, so the administration officials have the power to approve, and not just the ministers.
"But normally, it depends on the advice of the Attorney General, if he doesn't give advice, maybe the party doesn't accept it," the DAP lawmaker was quoted as saying.
In 2019, Thomas reportedly attached a copy of the 1939 judgment by Charles F. Macaskie, then the chief justice of the North Borneo High Court (as Sabah was called then) and said that Malaysia did not dispute the identity of the individuals and their right to be paid.
The letter was used by lawyers representing the descendants of the now defunct Sulu sultanate in the UK last week to refute Malaysia's rejection of their identity.
The letter also reportedly expressed Thomas' regret that payments ceased in 2013 and his remark that Malaysia was "now ready and willing” to pay the Sulu sultanate heirs all arrears from 2013 to 2019 amounting to RM48,300.
Malaysia stopped paying the Sulu sultanate heirs their RM5,300 cession money in 2013, following the attack by a force sent by self-described ruler Jamalul Kiram III on Lahad Datu that same year.
Two days ago, international news outlets reported that Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus were seized by bailiffs after a French arbitration court ruled in March that Malaysia had to pay the descendants of the Sulu sultanate at least RM62.59 billion.
The Financial Times reported that the seizure was part of legal efforts launched in 2017 by the heirs to receive compensation for land in Sabah they said their ancestor leased to a British trading company in 1878.
