He said the government will always defend the integrity of its territorial sovereignty.

He said this in a statement today to “clarify and expand” on his reply to a question posed by Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin in Parliament on Oct 6 in respect of the ongoing arbitration dispute, known as the Sulu claim, between the purported heirs to the defunct Sulu sultanate and the government.

In the reply, he had said that it was a private claim and had nothing to do with the question of sovereignty.

“To clarify, my answer was in relation to whether there is any chance that Sabah could, as a result of the unlawful Paris (court) award, become part of the Philippines.

“Let me say again that this is not possible. Sabah will never be ceded to or come under the control of the Philippines, and the federal government stands by and will always defend the integrity of Malaysia’s territorial sovereignty.”

The award, involving a sum of US$14.92 billion, was handed down by arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa to the Sulu claimants on Feb 28.

“When I said that the Paris award was a result of a private claim, it was a statement meaning that the claim was made by private individuals and not by the government of the Philippines,” Wan Junaidi said.

“Further, when I stated that the Sulu claim and the purported Paris award were not related to the question of sovereignty, that statement was in the context of territorial sovereignty – that is whether or not there was a chance that Sabah could ever be handed over to the Philippines.”

He said the Sulu claim was an attack on and an infringement of Malaysia’s sovereign and economic interests abroad.

“The Sulu claimants are using the arbitral process, which is a private international law mechanism, to attack Malaysia’s sovereign interests abroad.

“This is not only an abuse of the process but is an assault on Malaysia’s sovereignty and sovereign interests,” he said.