TAWAU, June 18 — The close cooperation between the Federal and Sabah governments has proven to be effective in dealing with the Sulu group’s claims, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah, Sarawak Affairs and Special Functions) Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali.

He said good cooperation between the office of the State Attorney General of Sabah and the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) has enabled court decisions in several European countries that were used as ‘forum shopping’ by the Sulu group to favour Malaysia.

"This has resulted in some of the highest courts such as in France recently ruling in favour of the Malaysian government,” he told reporters after a briefing for Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) leaders here today.

Armizan, who is also GRS deputy secretary-general, meanwhile said that from the beginning, GRS’s position had been consistent that claims on Sabah and Malaysia, and the attempts to dispute its sovereignty by external parties were baseless.

A group of eight Filipino individuals who claim to be the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu is reported to be taking legal action through the arbitration process in the Spanish Court to obtain compensation for land in Sabah, allegedly leased by their ancestors to a British trading company in 1878.

Meanwhile, Armizan urged the Sabah government to declassify the state government’s letter to the Finance Ministry in 2019 when Sabah was led by Parti Warisan from classified to open classification to shed some light on the issue of the rate of special grants to Sabah.

"The letter needs to be declassified to allow it to be shared with the public so that the people of Sabah can see the real facts, the rate (special grant) is much lower than the interim solution under the GRS-led government which starts at a rate of RM125 million per year in 2022,” he added.

He said the interim solution offered by the GRS last year directly benefited the people of Sabah, including housing for the underprivileged through SMJ’s Rumah Mesra programme. — Bernama