Still Wednesday, Janurary 7th, 2009 and it is now 3:07 PM here in the Philippines.
So...The British were forced to hand off Sabah to Malaysia, but it has been ruled in various court proceedings over the preceeding 50 years to be Philippine territory by virtue of the Sulu Sultanate. The Sultanate still exists, albeit with not much power or wealth, and yet the Malaysians continued to ignore Philippine pressure to ajudicate this matter in International Court, and meanwhile gave a token payment of 1,500 US annualy to the Sultan of Sulu, via their Embassy in Manila (still do by the way, what a joke!).
When Malaysia refused the Philippines request to return Sabah in 1963 the country broke off relations with Malaysia, and it remained thus until 1989 although you would never know it today.
Finally getting to the part I was aiming for...So, late 1960s, Marcos has stolen power and is sitting in his Dictator Hot Seat and gets this fabulous idea to send a covert force, a la American Bay of Pigs, into Sabah to sow dissent and serve as the foothold for the larger Philippine force that will win Sabah back (although the Philippines have never controlled it to start with).
The Sultan of Sulu in the meanwhile willed the territory to the Republic of the Philippines, no doubt for some modicum of financial consideration.
For this covert force, Marcos had his minions recruit 300 young Muslims from the Tausug and Sama Tribes, which originated in Sabah on Borneo but which had expanded over the years into the Sulu archipelago and Tawi Tawi, another Philippine island.
These men were trained in what was to become "Operation Merdeka" (Op. Freedom), first on Tawi Tawi and then transferred north to Corregidor Island which sits off Manila in Manila Bay.
Correigdor is a tiny island, used before that time as a penal colony, etc and as such it had very spartan surroundings. The training for these tribal youth was no doubt very stressful and when they were at last told, in the final segment of their training, that their Objective was to land on Sabah and make war against their own tribes they naturally were aghast.
They mutineed, and to make a long story short they were marched out to the airstrip there and executed to the last person (1 managed to live) on March 18th, 1968. Just one survivor managed to play dead after getting shot in his kneecap. He bobbed in the bay for several hours until rescued by a fishing boat that saw him hanging onto a piece of drift wood.
A Philippine Seantor blew the story wide open, and the press ran with it, this being the early period of Marcos reign when this was at all possible (Censorship was not yet in firm implementation). Had it taken place even 5 years later we certainly would never know about it today.
Muslims were furious, one in particular, a professor at University of Philippines in Manila, the intellectual Nurallaji "Nur" Misuari took it upon himself to found a left leaning Muslim Rights organisation, "Kabata'ang Makabayan."
By 1970 two Muslim leaders on Mindanao, already involved in the MIM (Moro Islamic Movement) recognised the need to form a cohesive inter-tribal organisation with a military wing to pursue their vision of Muslim self-determination for the southern part of the country. MIM was just atarting out, having been founded just after the Coerreigdor incident (known as the "Jabidah Massacare").
These men, Abul Khayr Alonto and Jallaludin Santos tapped Misuari to be the charismatic front man who would lend their new organisation widespread appeal among both the intellgentsia AND the common folk. Misuari then became the first Chairman of the "Moro LNational Liberation Front," the MNLF. For its first 2 years it was mostly an underground think tank but by 1972 they began recruiting Muslims from southern Mindanao at a fantastic pace.
The organisation was centered in the heart of Islamic Mindanao, the area bordering Cotabato and Maguindanao. Almost from day one they received much political, financial and military support from Libya and more telling, Malaysia which obviously had a vested interest culturally, religiously and more importantly perhaps politically.
The group met a pressing need and within its first 6 months their military apparattus had grown to include 20,000 well armed and well trained fighters who quickly took control of 7 provinces on Mindanao, plus most of Basilan, Jolo, and Sulu.
By 1974 they had 45,000 fighters and looked as if they would obtain independance for Mindanao,
et al until Marcos stole some of their momentum by cajoling them into a Cease Fire.
Owing to a simultaneous communist insurgency centered on Mindanao more than 60% of the military had already been deployed on the island, which Marcos now increased to an astounding 80%, which in turn inspired the communist insurgency to steamroll through 7 other theaters of operation throughout the regions of the country, including the heart of the capital, Manila.
By New Year's 1976 more than 60,000 people on Mindanao alone had been killed in the MNLF's area of operations (not even talking about the communist areas) and so there was widespread disenchantment amongst the groups' base of support, Moros and Islamicised tribals. At the same time Malaysia was maturing as a nation and feeling the heat in terms of International scrutiny and so they rapidly decreased both the flow of arms and the political backing.
This led to a wall in terms of momentum and the MNLF was forced to agree to bilateral negotations to be hosted by the MNLF's still loyal sponsor, Libya's Khadaffi, and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, to be held in Tripoli, Libya. The agreement reached there, known popularly as the "Tripoli Memorandum" offered the MNLF a generous level of autonomy in a rather large area of Mindanao (13 Provinces including Sulu et al).
Both sides came home elated, but it soon became clear that Marcos had merely been maneuvering the MNLF to get some much needed breathing room, not to actually come to an agreement. Marcos offered that before he could implement the agreement a ratification would need to be effected by the citizens of Mindanao in the effected areas.
This vote was held and much as Marcos had planned it led to a crushing defeat for the MNLF. More than a year had passed and the MNLF's base of support was in no mood to rehash a way of life that had killed roughly 60,000 people in less than 5 years. The MNLF still tried to restart its iniative but once momentum is lost it becomes increasingly harder to stay the course.
Later that same year, 1976, 1 more violent faction broke off, the "Moro islamic Liberation Front." The MILF was under the leadership of an even more charasmatic Hashim Salamat and took a very large number of the groups' best fighters with him.
Then came the next factional division, the "Bangsamoro Liberation Organisation," BMLO which took many of the remaining Maranao Tribesmen, leaving a core of Misuari's Tausug Tribe and Sama which left the MNLF incredibly weakened in its traditional sphere of influence, southern and central Mindanao. Tausaug and Sama are only minorities even within the Muslim minority on Mindanao, leaving the MNLF only still effective on Jolo and in Sulu.
I will continue...
So...The British were forced to hand off Sabah to Malaysia, but it has been ruled in various court proceedings over the preceeding 50 years to be Philippine territory by virtue of the Sulu Sultanate. The Sultanate still exists, albeit with not much power or wealth, and yet the Malaysians continued to ignore Philippine pressure to ajudicate this matter in International Court, and meanwhile gave a token payment of 1,500 US annualy to the Sultan of Sulu, via their Embassy in Manila (still do by the way, what a joke!).
When Malaysia refused the Philippines request to return Sabah in 1963 the country broke off relations with Malaysia, and it remained thus until 1989 although you would never know it today.
Finally getting to the part I was aiming for...So, late 1960s, Marcos has stolen power and is sitting in his Dictator Hot Seat and gets this fabulous idea to send a covert force, a la American Bay of Pigs, into Sabah to sow dissent and serve as the foothold for the larger Philippine force that will win Sabah back (although the Philippines have never controlled it to start with).
The Sultan of Sulu in the meanwhile willed the territory to the Republic of the Philippines, no doubt for some modicum of financial consideration.
For this covert force, Marcos had his minions recruit 300 young Muslims from the Tausug and Sama Tribes, which originated in Sabah on Borneo but which had expanded over the years into the Sulu archipelago and Tawi Tawi, another Philippine island.
These men were trained in what was to become "Operation Merdeka" (Op. Freedom), first on Tawi Tawi and then transferred north to Corregidor Island which sits off Manila in Manila Bay.
Correigdor is a tiny island, used before that time as a penal colony, etc and as such it had very spartan surroundings. The training for these tribal youth was no doubt very stressful and when they were at last told, in the final segment of their training, that their Objective was to land on Sabah and make war against their own tribes they naturally were aghast.
They mutineed, and to make a long story short they were marched out to the airstrip there and executed to the last person (1 managed to live) on March 18th, 1968. Just one survivor managed to play dead after getting shot in his kneecap. He bobbed in the bay for several hours until rescued by a fishing boat that saw him hanging onto a piece of drift wood.
A Philippine Seantor blew the story wide open, and the press ran with it, this being the early period of Marcos reign when this was at all possible (Censorship was not yet in firm implementation). Had it taken place even 5 years later we certainly would never know about it today.
Muslims were furious, one in particular, a professor at University of Philippines in Manila, the intellectual Nurallaji "Nur" Misuari took it upon himself to found a left leaning Muslim Rights organisation, "Kabata'ang Makabayan."
By 1970 two Muslim leaders on Mindanao, already involved in the MIM (Moro Islamic Movement) recognised the need to form a cohesive inter-tribal organisation with a military wing to pursue their vision of Muslim self-determination for the southern part of the country. MIM was just atarting out, having been founded just after the Coerreigdor incident (known as the "Jabidah Massacare").
These men, Abul Khayr Alonto and Jallaludin Santos tapped Misuari to be the charismatic front man who would lend their new organisation widespread appeal among both the intellgentsia AND the common folk. Misuari then became the first Chairman of the "Moro LNational Liberation Front," the MNLF. For its first 2 years it was mostly an underground think tank but by 1972 they began recruiting Muslims from southern Mindanao at a fantastic pace.
The organisation was centered in the heart of Islamic Mindanao, the area bordering Cotabato and Maguindanao. Almost from day one they received much political, financial and military support from Libya and more telling, Malaysia which obviously had a vested interest culturally, religiously and more importantly perhaps politically.
The group met a pressing need and within its first 6 months their military apparattus had grown to include 20,000 well armed and well trained fighters who quickly took control of 7 provinces on Mindanao, plus most of Basilan, Jolo, and Sulu.
By 1974 they had 45,000 fighters and looked as if they would obtain independance for Mindanao,
et al until Marcos stole some of their momentum by cajoling them into a Cease Fire.
Owing to a simultaneous communist insurgency centered on Mindanao more than 60% of the military had already been deployed on the island, which Marcos now increased to an astounding 80%, which in turn inspired the communist insurgency to steamroll through 7 other theaters of operation throughout the regions of the country, including the heart of the capital, Manila.
By New Year's 1976 more than 60,000 people on Mindanao alone had been killed in the MNLF's area of operations (not even talking about the communist areas) and so there was widespread disenchantment amongst the groups' base of support, Moros and Islamicised tribals. At the same time Malaysia was maturing as a nation and feeling the heat in terms of International scrutiny and so they rapidly decreased both the flow of arms and the political backing.
This led to a wall in terms of momentum and the MNLF was forced to agree to bilateral negotations to be hosted by the MNLF's still loyal sponsor, Libya's Khadaffi, and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, to be held in Tripoli, Libya. The agreement reached there, known popularly as the "Tripoli Memorandum" offered the MNLF a generous level of autonomy in a rather large area of Mindanao (13 Provinces including Sulu et al).
Both sides came home elated, but it soon became clear that Marcos had merely been maneuvering the MNLF to get some much needed breathing room, not to actually come to an agreement. Marcos offered that before he could implement the agreement a ratification would need to be effected by the citizens of Mindanao in the effected areas.
This vote was held and much as Marcos had planned it led to a crushing defeat for the MNLF. More than a year had passed and the MNLF's base of support was in no mood to rehash a way of life that had killed roughly 60,000 people in less than 5 years. The MNLF still tried to restart its iniative but once momentum is lost it becomes increasingly harder to stay the course.
Later that same year, 1976, 1 more violent faction broke off, the "Moro islamic Liberation Front." The MILF was under the leadership of an even more charasmatic Hashim Salamat and took a very large number of the groups' best fighters with him.
Then came the next factional division, the "Bangsamoro Liberation Organisation," BMLO which took many of the remaining Maranao Tribesmen, leaving a core of Misuari's Tausug Tribe and Sama which left the MNLF incredibly weakened in its traditional sphere of influence, southern and central Mindanao. Tausaug and Sama are only minorities even within the Muslim minority on Mindanao, leaving the MNLF only still effective on Jolo and in Sulu.
I will continue...