'Sabah intrusion and Filipino peace talks unrelated'

The Sabah intrusion is a separate issue from the Bangsamoro peace talks with the Philippines, said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front(MILF).

MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim reiterated that even during past negotiations, there was no mention of the issue on the supposed claim on Sabah.

“There are platforms dealing with the issue of Sabah. What we say is there are some dissatisfied elements who want to capitalise on and ride on the Sabah issue,” Murad told Astro AWANI at the sidelines of the at the 27th Asia Pacific Roundtable here.

Asked if the allegations that the violence in Lahad Datu could have been sparked off by those left out of the peace process, Murad expressed that it could be the case.

“[They are] not necessarily left out. Because peace talks are always inclusive, but maybe they just want to show their dissatisfaction... and [the terrorists were] used by vested interest groups.

“It is a matter of using each other. Maybe the heirs of sultanate of Sulu, was using some group... They are using each other for their own interests,” he said.

Murad also stressed that although MILF was the main player in the peace talks, the other groups should also realise that the negotiations were for the Bangsamoro people in general.

“It’s not only for the MILF... there will be convergence in 2016. This would be a free for all political exercise, they can form their own political parties,” he said.

He also said that there has been zero encounters between rebel groups and the government in 2012 and he expressed concern that there were those ‘spiteful’ who could derail the peace process.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's facilitator to the southern Philippines peace process Tengku Datuk Abdul Ghafar Tengku Mohamed also echoed Murad’s comments that the Sabah issue and the peace talks were not related.

“Sabah [issue] is an internal matters of Malaysia and peace talk is internal matters of Philippines. Whatever problems between Malaysia and Philippines is to be handled on a different platform such as the diplomatic platform and bilateral platform,” he said.

“The Sabah claim or the claim by [sultan Jalamul Kiram III] on Malaysia is bilateral. In the last 12 years of talks between the Philippines and MILF, those issues were never on the table.”