The Lahad Datu terrorist attacks were not carried out by us, nor on our behalf, nor with our approval in any way at all.  When the 2013 Lahad Datu attack occurred, the 1878 Agreement was in place and was being honored by Malaysia.  The invasion was led by a relative of ours who claimed himself to be a Sultan, and had been excluded from any rights to be a designated heir, pursuant to Sultan Jamalul II’s will.  It was pointless and illegal, and the violence was inexcusable.

(There are many individuals who claim the title Sultan of Sulu.  Who is the successor to that honorific title is debated.  What is not disputed, and is endorsed by court rulings which Malaysia has accepted and indeed been involved with, is who are the Heirs to Sultan Jamalul’s Will, and his possessions, like Sabah.)

There was some shouting by senior Malaysian politicians in 2013 because of Lahad Datu, when it emerged quietly that Malaysia had always paid a lease contract.  But they chose to ignore what they had always accepted before.  That this was a legal contract.  But go look for a documented evaluation and decision on this, in Hansard or elsewhere. Where does the government explain (even to itself) what the situation was?  Nowhere.

It was only in 2023 that Malaysia came up with the ridiculous claim, presented entirely without evidence, that one of us was a ‘terrorist’.  This is bullshit, and beneath contempt.  It was a disgraceful abuse of terrorist legislation, with the simple hope of wrong-footing the International enforcement of the arbitration.