Imagine that a group of litigants took the US government to court in Russia, and won a ruling that they were owed billions of dollars over an agreement signed in the early 19th century – on the grounds that Alaska belonged to Russia before 1867. Similarly, what if the Greek government were determined by courts in Turkey to owe a huge sum of money over an historical contract, the argument being that, because Greece was then in the Ottoman Empire, Turkey would be the right place to deal with this issue? Both cases are unthinkable, and the latter could bring the combustible Greco-Turkish relations to the brink.
Something very similar to this, though, has just happened to Malaysia. Last week, it led to a bailiff serving asset seizure notices at the Luxembourg offices of two subsidiaries of Petronas, Malaysia’s state-owned energy giant, and sent panic through the government that national assets anywhere in the world could be at risk.
The asset seizure notices were delivered as the result of a ruling that Malaysia owes $14.9 billion to a group who claim to be the heirs of a sultanate that has not existed since 1915, and is an unwelcome example of how the international legal system can still be entangled by almost-forgotten relics of colonial history.
The story begins in 1878, when the then sultan of Sulu, a group of islands in western Philippines, signed an agreement that allowed the British North Borneo Company to take over a chunk of land in what is now the Malaysian state of Sabah. Any dispute over whether it was a lease or a cession should have been cleared up by a subsequent treaty in 1903 that confirmed the “cession”. North Borneo later became a British colony, and in 1963 agreed to become part of the newly created state of Malaysia.
While colonialism may be long gone, international law needs to catch up
Up until nine years ago, Malaysia continued paying an annual cession payment of 5,300 ringgit ($1,190) to descendants of the last sultan, who died in 1936. But in 2013, a 235-strong group associated with one of the pretenders to the defunct sultanate “invaded” Sabah – which sounds like a joke, except 56 of the militants died, as did 10 Malaysian security force personnel and six civilians.
The sum of money that could reasonably be claimed, therefore – if it was not deemed fairly forfeited after the attack on Malaysia – may be around $13,500, with interest. Hardly a sultan’s ransom. The heirs and their lawyers, however, have brazenly taken this as an opportunity to demand compensation for the vast mineral wealth in Sabah that nobody was aware of back in 1878.
Tommy Thomas, who was Malaysia's attorney general when the case was proceeding, recently said that the heirs told the Malaysian government “that they tried to go to the UK” as the former colonial power in North Borneo. "The UK chased them away. The UK said: ‘We have nothing to do with this, go to the courts of Malaysia’".
The heirs then went to Spain, the former colonial rulers of the Philippines, where the Madrid High Court appointed an arbitrator, Gonzalo Stampa. According to Mr Thomas, Malaysia contacted the Spanish authorities, and “the Madrid court agreed with us and set aside everything” – whereupon Mr Stampa took the case to France, which likes to call itself “the home of international arbitration”. In February, the huge sum was awarded, a judgment the French Court of Appeal ordered stayed on July 12 – except by then, the bailiffs had already sprung into action in Luxembourg.
The story is even more convoluted than that, and if it seems strange that the case moved to France, the explanation given by one involved source to a Malaysian paper, The Edge, was that an “arbitration is like a plane – once it takes off, there is no way the control tower where the plane took off can dictate what happens”.
The Malaysian government is confident that it is in the right. Perhaps a relatively small sum may be due to the heirs, but nothing remotely close to $14.9bn. And that is being generous, because many historians dispute that the Sulu sultanate ever had any legitimate claim to the land in Sabah in the first place; in fact, they argue, it belonged to Brunei.
"Sulu never had a treaty or a title deed from Brunei, and no record or evidence exists of Sulu ever possessing or governing North Borneo,” says Bunn Nagara, convener of the Sabah Malaysia Study Group. Brunei ceded the area to the British North Borneo Company in 1877. “Sulu was asserting a claim to the territory and had a reputation for raiding coastal settlements, so as an insurance policy the company made another cession agreement with Sulu."
In short, the heirs were lucky to receive cession payments for a land that may never have been theirs to begin with for so long. Until recently, all this was mostly a matter for historians, although as Mr Bunn points out, “the claim remains a very populist issue in the Philippines, unsupported by the facts as it is. Previous presidents such as Corazon Aquino and Gloria Arroyo, who tried to mitigate Manila’s claim on Sabah, have been accused by some as traitors".
Now, however, while the Malaysian government told the Financial Times that the award’s suspension in Paris was grounds for other countries to refuse its enforcement, the heirs’ lawyers in London insisted that “the seizure process is a rolling programme”.
Malaysian officials are taking measures to protect assets abroad, but the worry at the moment is that the heirs’ lawyers, who are believed to be backed by a major litigation fund in London, “can pick from the other 167 jurisdictions that are party to the New York Convention on arbitration, and then Malaysia will have to show up and say we have a stay from the Paris Court of Appeal", says one involved in how to combat this action in Kuala Lumpur. “What’s the limit to this? Should European countries have any role in these kinds of disputes? Shouldn’t colonialism have ended already?”
All good points. What this bizarre story shows, however, is that while colonialism may be long gone, its legacy can still be exploited. International law needs to catch up. Ordinary Malaysians do not deserve this attempt to squeeze billions out of them. And somehow, I suspect that deep sympathy for the descendants of the last Sultan of Sulu does not top their lawyers’ list of concerns.
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Favourite Quote: Prophet Mohammad's quotes There is reward for kindness to every living thing and A good man treats women with honour
Favourite Hobby: Serving poor people
Favourite Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite food: Fish and vegetables
Favourite place to visit: London
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Fines for littering
In Dubai:
Dh200 for littering or spitting in the Dubai Metro
Dh500 for throwing cigarette butts or chewing gum on the floor, or littering from a vehicle.
Dh1,000 for littering on a beach, spitting in public places, throwing a cigarette butt from a vehicle
In Sharjah and other emirates
Dh500 for littering - including cigarette butts and chewing gum - in public places and beaches in Sharjah
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Dh1,000 for littering from a car in Abu Dhabi
Dh1,000 to Dh100,000 for dumping waste in residential or public areas in Al Ain
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MATCH INFO
Borussia Dortmund 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Kimmich 43')
Man of the match: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
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Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
1st Test July 26-30 in Galle
2nd Test August 3-7 in Colombo
3rd Test August 12-16 in Pallekele
Reputation
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(Big Machine Records)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
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BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre flat-six twin-turbocharged
Transmission: eight-speed PDK automatic
Power: 445bhp
Torque: 530Nm
Price: Dh474,600
On Sale: Now
The bio
Favourite book: Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
Favourite quote: “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist
Favourite Authors: Arab poet Abu At-Tayyib Al-Mutanabbi
Favourite Emirati food: Luqaimat, a deep-fried dough soaked in date syrup
Hobbies: Reading and drawing
Read more from Mina Al-Oraibi
Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE
There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.
It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.
What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.
When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.
It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.
This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.
It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
