The cross border attacks in Sabah are a series of cross border terrorist attacks perpetrated by Moro pirates from Mindanao, Philippines, in the state of Sabah, Malaysia, that began even before the British colonial period. Many civilians have died or suffered during these incidents, causing an increase in anti-Filipino sentiment among the native peoples of Sabah, especially after major attacks in 1985, 2000 and 2013. The attacks were more intense during the presidential terms of Diosdado Macapagal and Ferdinand Marcos, who supported irredentist claims to include eastern Sabah as part of the Philippines territory. In addition, recent infiltration and attacks by militants as well as uncontrolled human migration from Mindanao to Sabah has led to more unease among the local residents of Sabah, with around 78% of prison inmates that were caught in the state due to involvement in criminal activities and lawlessness issues mainly originating from the southern Philippines.
Prior to a large-scale military operation initiated by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to combat the rampant lawlessness in the southern Philippines since mid-2016, Malaysian security forces had been told to tighten its security and to ensure that terrorists do not attempt to flee prosecution by escaping to uninhabited areas. Sabahan leaders also ordered Malaysian security forces to "shoot on sight" any trespassers who continue to ignore laws despite repeated warnings and that those escaping militants be dealt with by the country's laws more effectively. Following the declaration of martial law in the neighbouring Philippines since 23 May 2017, Malaysian authorities increased their border security. Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal also urged the Malaysian security forces to stop taking a defensive attitude and be offensive towards the rampant crimes perpetrated by southern Filipino criminals and terrorists that has disturbed peace in the state.
Various countries and territories such as Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam have raised a travel alert for their citizens to avoid the area in eastern Sabah.
The cross border attacks in Sabah are a series of cross border terrorist attacks perpetrated by Moro pirates from Mindanao, Philippines, in the state of Sabah, Malaysia, that began even before the British colonial period. Many civilians have died or suffered during these incidents, causing an increase in anti-Filipino sentiment among the native peoples of Sabah, especially after major attacks in 1985, 2000 and 2013. The attacks were more intense during the presidential terms of Diosdado Macapagal and Ferdinand Marcos, who supported irredentist claims to include eastern Sabah as part of the Philippines territory. In addition, recent infiltration and attacks by militants as well as uncontrolled human migration from Mindanao to Sabah has led to more unease among the local residents of Sabah, with around 78% of prison inmates that were caught in the state due to involvement in criminal activities and lawlessness issues mainly originating from the southern Philippines.
Prior to a large-scale military operation initiated by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to combat the rampant lawlessness in the southern Philippines since mid-2016, Malaysian security forces had been told to tighten its security and to ensure that terrorists do not attempt to flee prosecution by escaping to uninhabited areas. Sabahan leaders also ordered Malaysian security forces to "shoot on sight" any trespassers who continue to ignore laws despite repeated warnings and that those escaping militants be dealt with by the country's laws more effectively. Following the declaration of martial law in the neighbouring Philippines since 23 May 2017, Malaysian authorities increased their border security. Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal also urged the Malaysian security forces to stop taking a defensive attitude and be offensive towards the rampant crimes perpetrated by southern Filipino criminals and terrorists that has disturbed peace in the state.
Various countries and territories such as Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam have raised a travel alert for their citizens to avoid the area in eastern Sabah.
Background
Piracy has been a part of the Sultanate of Sulu's culture. During the expedition by the British ship HMS Dido in 1846, Captain Henry Keppel mentioned:
The Sulu islands were known for their "great slave market" with their islanders frequently attacking Borneo Island in search of slaves. In 1910, the neighbouring Celebes Islands was attacked by seven Moro pirates that had crossed from Mindanao, and two Dutch traders were killed in the incident. Subsequent reports from the British government in North Borneo reported that Joloano Moros terrorised the inhabitants of North Borneo, looting small towns and killing many people. Although the British did a lot to combat piracy, an office of a British company was later raided by twelve Moro pirates in Kalabakan in July 1958. Another raid was done on the nearby township of Semporna on 29 March 1954. During the last years of British rule in North Borneo, both seafarers and coastal settlements suffered a high numbers of attacks from pirates who were believed to be mainly based on Tawi-Tawi. Between 1959 and 1962, 232 pirates attack were recorded by the British authorities in North Borneo, but these were thought to be underestimated as many attacks went unreported. The British North Borneo governor at the time, Roland Turnbull had requested the British to provide him with security forces from the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force but no aid was sent until a British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph embellished the report with an anti-Indonesian bias because of the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.
Moro migration to Sabah
Regional migration flows within Southeast Asia are not a phenomenon restricted to current times. Social and cultural connections between Sabah, Mindanao and the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan have existed for centuries. The tradition of border crossing from the Philippine Sulu Archipelago to Sabah originated in the late 16th century. The first wave of this migration was linked to the Spanish colonialists who began pushing southwards toward the island provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi from Manila, which was the administration centre of the Spanish during that time. The struggle for dominance between different ethnic groups and the Spanish in Mindanao led to increased immigration of Philippine Moro ethnic groups, mostly the Suluks and Bajaus to Sabah.
The first arrival of the illegal immigrants in Sabah in the 1960s was said to be associated with the then Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos and his country's claim to the northern Borneo region. It is claimed by media in the Philippines that during the first stage of his plan, Marcos sent around 17 men who mostly recruited from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi had entered Sabah as forest rangers, postmen and police. These agents have blended into the Sabah local communities with a plan to possessing the minds of the larger Filipino communities in eastern Sabah to secede from Malaysia and become part of the Philippines as well to destabilising Sabah. At the same time, a Suluk native, Mustapha Harun became the third Chief Minister of Sabah, he then made a contact with one of the Filipino agent who became his driver. However, most of them did not intend to attack their fellow Muslim brothers in Sabah when they realised their true mission in which they were later executed by Marcos commando soldiers in an event known as Jabidah massacre. During Mustapha's term from 1967 to 1975, he was believed to have encouraged many newly Filipino Tausūgs to migrate to northern Borneo to establish a strong Muslim community which was represented by the United Sabah National Organisation (USNO). Since the massacre especially with the starting of Moro insurgency in the Philippines, Mustapha is believed to have supplied the Moro rebels with financial and weapon supports to fight for their freedom and to take a revenge for their fallen comrades.
Since then, it has caused major economic problems for Sabah as Marcos soldiers launched an operation to eliminate any anti-Marcos factions in the Sulu and Mindanao islands which left much infrastructure there destroyed, forcing another estimated 100,000 Moros in Mindanao to flee to Sabah. Most of those who left the Philippines were already involved in criminal activities, mainly smuggling and armed robbery. Today, a huge numbers of Moros still live in many places in Sabah such as Kota Kinabalu, Kinarut, Lahad Datu, Sandakan, Semporna, Tawau, Telipok as well on Labuan. Most of the Filipino refugees are issued with IMM13 documents by the Malaysian government during Mahathir Mohamad administration, with many of them have been controversially naturalised as citizen.
Besides that, the present economic disparity between Mindanao and Sabah became the main reason many of these illegal Moros snuck into Sabah with some of those "extremist" Moros with their own ideology still perceive the eastern part of Sabah as part of the Philippines, and these groups feel entitled to enter Sabah as it is their historical right although the Sultanate of Sulu have defunct since the last recognised Sultan, Jamalul Kiram II whose have no son to inherit his powers.
Despite the common negative views on Filipino immigrants for the crimes in Sabah, several Islamist terrorist attacks targeting Philippine cities were perpetrated by extremists of Malaysian descent. Filipino Moros who fled from the war in the Philippines were forced to flee the devastation of the Moro conflict, a conflict which was tacitly supported by the Malaysian government.
In 2014, the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) Security Coordinating Intelligence Officer Hassim Justin blamed corruption, illegal issuance of identity cards and local authorities who did not taking any action to combat the squatter colonies for contributing to the significant increase of illegal immigrants in Sabah. It was also reported that community leaders in the east coast such as village chief were involved in the granting of identity cards to new Filipino Moro immigrants as they have a connection with them through similar ethnic roots. According to a research by two Filipino researchers, Myfel Joseph Paluga and Andrea Malaya Ragragio of the Department of Social Science University of the Philippines Mindanao, the flood of migrants from Mindanao to Sabah was partly encouraged by certain Sabah politicians who wanted to be the Sultan of Sulu especially after the fall of Sabah Muslim-led parties of USNO and Sabah People's United Front (BERJAYA) administrations. Beside that, it was claimed by Indonesian workers who had become victims of irresponsible employers, the arrival of illegal immigrants from the Philippines are also caused by employers who abuse their powers especially in the agricultural sectors of palm oil plantation.
Timeline of attacks
Attack strategy
The tactics are different, and are based on the motives of individual groups. Generally, the Moro pirate and militants will attack and escape to the Malaysia–Philippines border or any nearby islands when their activities are spotted by the security forces. Both the pirates and militants will usually steal boat engines, food and other useful things that can be sold. In certain cases, they also attack towns, killing innocent civilians and kidnapping them as shown in the Lahad Datu and Semporna attacks. The Filipino illegal immigrants play an important role in helping them by providing information on their next target. Due to the increase security patrol by the Malaysian Armed Forces, militant group such as the Abu Sayyaf have changed their tactics by attacking and abducting foreign vessel crews. Many of those fleeing from the Philippine military operation in the southern Philippines also sneak into Sabah by entering the state in a small group to avoid being detected as suspicious by the Malaysian security forces, this was discovered following a tip-off from local villagers who saw many new suspicious people coming into their village from the sea shortly after the continuous military operation. Many of them are believed to be members of militant and kidnapping groups.
20th century
In 1962, seven Filipino Moros armed with machetes attacked the town of Kunak and robbed the businessmen there. The seven Filipino Moros attacked again in 1963, this time attacking the town of Semporna and killing a number of residents. In October 1979, a passenger boat on the way to Semporna from Lahad Datu with 48 passengers was attacked and forced to dock at Adal Island. Three passengers were shot dead, one woman was raped and the others was taken to the Philippines but were quickly rescued by the Philippine security forces. In 1980, a group of 6–8 Moros attacked an island near Semporna with M16 rifles, killing villagers while they were asleep. At the end, seven villagers were killed while 11 others were injured. In 1982, a groups of Moros ambushed a village in Timba-Timba Island, and started to shoot, rob and kill villagers. The incident in 1985, which is considered to be the most terrifying attack out of all of them, was where 21 people were killed and another 11 wounded. Five of the intruders were killed by the Malaysian maritime police while the others managed to escaped. At the end of the tragedy, one of the victim said;
I cannot help wondering about our government, which can't seem to defend us against these marauders.
In 1987, two Japanese managers were killed while others were wounded after twelve gunmen attack a factory in the Boheydulang Island, forcing the company to close and move their factory to Indonesia. In 1996, two separate armed groups from Mindanao attack the town of Semporna, the first group attack a police station by throwing a fish bomb while the second group managed to steal jewellery worth around MYR100,000 at a gold shop. During the shoot-out, two of the group members were captured by the police with 200 bullets recovered from them. However, the rest managed to escape. In March 1996, another attacks by 10–20 Moros happens in the town of Semporna when three separate armed groups attacked different places at the same time. The first group attacked a police headquarters while the second group attacked a police station. It is acknowledged the motive of the first and second group was to delay time and let the third group succeed in robbing a gold shop. No arrest was made and all the intruders managed to escaped with MYR 200,000. Again in July 1996, four armed men attack a gold shop in Tawau and managed to steal jewellery worth around MYR 150,000. However, one of the gunmen later made a mistake when he retreated to a refugee village in Tawau where he was shot dead by the police. After an hour of investigation, another 5 gunmen from other groups were killed by the police.