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Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa - Kota Kinabalu
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Introduction
Sabah (Malay pronunciation: [saˈbah]) is Malaysia's easternmost state, one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. It is also one of the founding members of the Malaysian federation alongside Sarawak, Singapore (expelled in 1965) and the Federation of Malaya. Like Sarawak, this territory has an autonomous law especially in immigration which differentiates it from the rest of the Malaysian Peninsula states. It is located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo and known as the second largest state in the country after Sarawak, which it borders on its southwest. It shares a maritime border with the Federal Territory of Labuan on the west and with the Philippines to the north and northeast. The state's only international border is with the province of North Kalimantan of Indonesia in the south. The capital of Sabah is Kota Kinabalu, formerly known as Jesselton. Sabah is often referred to as the "Land Below The Wind", a phrase used by seafarers in the past to describe lands south of the typhoon belt.
History
Early history
Earliest human migration and settlement into the region is believed to have dated back about 20,000–30,000 years ago. These early humans are believed to be Australoid or Negrito people. The next wave of human migration, believed to be Austronesian Mongoloids, occurred around 3000 BC.
Bruneian Empire and the Sulu Sultanate
During the 7th century CE, a settled community known as Vijayapura, a tributary to the Srivijaya empire, was thought to have been the earliest beneficiary to the Bruneian Empire existing around the northeast coast of Borneo. Another kingdom which suspected to have existed beginning the 9th century was P'o-ni. It was believed that Po-ni existed at the mouth of Brunei River and was the predecessor to the Sultanate of Brunei. The Sultanate of Brunei began after the ruler of Brunei embraced Islam. During the reign of the fifth sultan known as Bolkiah between 1473–1524, the Sultanate's thalassocracy extended over Sabah, Sulu Archipelago and Manila in the north, and Sarawak until Banjarmasin in the south. In 1658, the Sultan of Brunei ceded the northern and eastern portion of Borneo to the Sultan of Sulu in compensation for the latter's help in settling a civil war in the Brunei Sultanate, although this was denied as supported by a numbers of old resources. Many Brunei Malays migrated to this region during this period, although the migration has begun as early as the 15th century after the Brunei conquest of the territory. In the same time, the seafaring Bajau-Suluk people arrived from the Sulu Archipelago and started to settling in the coasts of north and eastern Borneo. It is believed that they were fleeing from the oppression of the Spanish colonist in their region. While the thalassocratic Brunei and Sulu sultanates controlled the western and eastern coasts of Sabah respectively, the interior region remained largely independent from either kingdoms.
British North Borneo
In 1761, Alexander Dalrymple, an officer of the British East India Company, concluded an agreement with the Sultan of Sulu to allow him to set up a trading post in the Sulu area, although it proved to be a failure. In 1846, the island of Labuan on the west coast of Sabah was ceded to Britain by the Sultan of Brunei and in 1848 it became a British Crown Colony while the territory of Sabah ceded through an agreement on 1877, the territory on the eastern part were also ceded by the Sultanate of Sulu in 1878. Following a series of transfers, the rights to North Borneo were transferred to Alfred Dent, whom in 1881 formed the British North Borneo Company (BNBC). In the following year, Kudat was made its capital. In 1883, the capital was moved to Sandakan and in 1885, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany signed the Madrid Protocol, which recognised the sovereignty of Spain over the Sulu Archipelago in return for the relinquishment of all Spanish claims over North Borneo. North Borneo became a protectorate of the United Kingdom in 1888.
Japanese occupation and Allied liberation
As part of the Second World War, Japanese forces landed in Labuan on 1 January 1942, and continued to invade the rest of North Borneo. From 1942 to 1945, Japanese forces occupied North Borneo, along with most of the island. Bombings by the allied forces devastated most of the towns including Sandakan, which was razed to the ground. In Sandakan, there was once a brutal POW camp run by the Japanese for British and Australian POWs from North Borneo. The prisoners suffered under notoriously inhuman conditions, and Allied bombardments caused the Japanese to relocate the POW camp to inland Ranau, 260 km away. All the prisoners, then were reduced to 2,504 in number, were forced to march the infamous Sandakan Death March. Except for six Australians, all of the prisoners died. The war ended on 10 September 1945. After the surrender, North Borneo was administered by the British Military Administration and in 1946 it became a British Crown Colony. Until the Philippine independence on 1946, seven British-controlled islands in the north-eastern part of Borneo named Turtle Islands and Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi were ceded to the Philippine government by the Crown colony government of North Borneo. Due to massive destruction in the town of Sandakan since the war, Jesselton was chosen to replaced the capital with the Crown continued to rule North Borneo until 1963.
Self-government and the Federation of Malaysia
On 31 August 1963, North Borneo attained self-government. The Cobbold Commission was set up on 1962 to determine whether the people of Sabah and Sarawak favoured the proposed union of the Federation of Malaysia, and found that the union was generally favoured by the people. Most ethnic community leaders of Sabah, namely, Tun Mustapha representing the native Muslims, Tun Fuad Stephens representing the non-Muslim natives, and Khoo Siak Chew representing the Chinese, would eventually support the union. After discussion culminating in the Malaysia Agreement and 20-point agreement, on 16 September 1963 North Borneo, as Sabah, was united with Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore, to form the independent Federation of Malaysia.
From before the formation of Malaysia till 1966, Indonesia adopted a hostile policy towards the British backed Malaya, and after union to Malaysia. This undeclared war stems from what Indonesian President Sukarno perceive as an expansion of British influence in the region and his intention to wrest control over the whole of Borneo under the Indonesian republic. Tun Fuad Stephens became the first chief minister of Sabah. The first Governor (Yang di-Pertuan Negeri) was Tun Mustapha. Sabah held its first state election in 1967. Until present, a total of 12 state elections has been held. Sabah has had 14 different chief ministers and 10 different Yang di-Pertua Negeri. On 14 June 1976 the government of Sabah signed an agreement with Petronas, the federal government-owned oil and gas company, granting it the right to extract and earn revenue from petroleum found in the territorial waters of Sabah in exchange for 5% in annual revenue as royalties.
The state government of Sabah ceded Labuan to the Malaysian federal government, and Labuan became a federal territory on 16 April 1984. In 2000, the state capital Kota Kinabalu was granted city status, making it the 6th city in Malaysia and the first city in the state. Also in the same year, Kinabalu National Park was officially designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, making it the first site in the country to be given such designation. In 2002, the International Court of Justice ruled that the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan, claimed by Indonesia, are part of Sabah and Malaysia.
Southern Philippines Moro refugees problems and terrorism threat
Beginning in 1970, newest Filipinos Moro refugees from Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago began arriving in Sabah as a result of an insurgency taking place in their region. Their migration has led to major problems in the state, mostly on social problem and some of them been alleged to have stealing Sabahan native land. The state economy has been impacted, as many of the illegal immigrants have been involved in crimes such as theft and vandalism and have become the main cause of solid waste pollution in marine and coastal areas. Apart from that, the immigrants have destroyed many mangrove in the forest reserve areas to give way to build their illegal houses. Their poverty condition had become one of the main causes the state been labelled as the poorest state in Malaysia. In 1985, the town of Lahad Datu was attacked by Moro Pirates from the Southern Philippines, killing at least 21 people and injuring 11 others. On May 2000, the Abu Sayyaf militant group from southern Philippines arrived on the resort island of Sipadan and kidnapped 21 people consisting of tourists and resort workers for ransom. Most hostages were rescued on September 2000 following an offensive by the Philippine army. The tragedy in late February 2013 has made it much worse when the Sabah village of Tanduo in the Lahad Datu region was occupied by several armed Filipino supporters of the Sultanate of Sulu, calling themselves the Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo which were sent by Jamalul Kiram III, one of the claimant to the throne of the sultanate. His stated goal is to assert the Philippine territorial claim to eastern Sabah as part of the North Borneo dispute. In response, Malaysian security forces surrounded the village. After several negotiations with the group and by the Philippine and Malaysian governments to reach a peaceful solution were unsuccessful, the standoff escalated into an armed conflict which ends with 56 of the self-proclaimed Sultanate followers died while the others were either been captured by Malaysian authorities or escaped back to the Philippines. The Malaysian side also suffers 10 life lost because of the conflict with most of them are the security forces including other six civilians. In the same year, a group believed from Abu Sayyaf militants raided a resort on the island of Pom Pom in Semporna. During the ambush, a couple from Taiwan were on the resort when one of them was shot dead by the militants while the second victim was kidnapped and taken to the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines. The victim was later freed in Sulu Province with the help of the Philippines security forces.
In early 2014, an attempt of further intrusion was already thwarted by the Malaysian security forces. Soon, a group of armed men believed to be from Abu Sayyaf militants attack a resort off Semporna. During the raid, a Chinese from Shanghai and one Filipino were kidnapped and taken to the Sulu Archipelago. The two hostages was later rescued with a collaboration by the Malaysian and the Philippines security forces. In May, five gunmen believed from Abu Sayyaf raid a Malaysian fish farm in Baik Island near the shores of Silam and kidnap the fish farm manager. The hostage was later taken to the Jolo island in the Sulu Archipelago. He was later freed on July with the help of Malaysian negotiators. In June, two gunmen believed from Abu Sayyaf group kidnapped a Chinese fish farm manager and one Filipino in Kampung Air Sapang, Kunak, Sabah. One of the kidnap victim who is a Filipino fish farm worker managed to escape and goes missing. While the fish farm manager has been taken to Jolo. The fish farm manager was freed on 13 December with the help of two Filipino negotiators, with one of them is a leader of the Moro National Liberation Front. The Malaysian authorities have identified the Filipinos five "Muktadir brothers" who lived in Semporna are behind in all of the kidnappings cases before they sell their hostages to the Abu Sayyaf group. In early July, an attempt of seven armed men to abduct a cage-fish farmer off Bangau-Bangau Island was already failed when the entrepreneur was not at his farm during the incident. However, this soon never stopped when eight gunmen wearing army fatigues from the southern Philippines barged into Mabul Island and killed one policeman and kidnapped another during a shootout at a resort on the island. The policeman was later freed on 7 March 2015, after 9 months in captivity. In October 2014, two Vietnamese fishermen who were working for a Malaysian employer, were shot by Filipino pirates. All of them were later rescued by the Malaysian security forces and sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu. Further abductions were continuously occurred in the east coast of Sabah.
It was later revealed that the Filipino immigrants in Sabah becoming an insider spy and helping their foreign relatives to do the criminal and militant activities. This has been proved by the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) Security Coordinating Intelligence Officer Hassim Justin who blamed on the corruption, illegal issuance of identity cards and the local authorities who did not taking any action to combat the squatter colonies before which now has contributed to the high increase of the illegal immigrant population in Sabah, he also mention about the culture of these immigrants;
Although these foreigners stayed in Sabah, their loyalty to their homelands (Mindanao and Sulu Archipelago) in the Philippines never swayed and brought along crimes like drugs, smuggling and piracy. The Filipinos from this region are vengeful and ill-tempered, where disputes often result in shooting and end in bloody feuds. "A culture they call Rido".
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. During when Sabah security members been stationed in a mission to guard a primary school in Lahad Datu, the security members saw in the school that when a teacher scolded a nine-year-old student (whose family are naturalised residents but had strong ethnic roots from the Southern Philippines) for making noise in class, the student lambast the teacher by saying "If the Kiram force take over Sabah, then you will see what is your fate". Thus since hearing the lack of patriotism and bad attitude among the Filipino Moro newcomers, the security officer in Sabah have suggested the whole families of dubious citizenship residents should be deported back to their country of origin if they continuously committing crimes and causing chaos without any benefits to the state as well any Filipino names in troubled villages with high crime rates in eastern Sabah would be removed and replaced with Sabahan names, as 78% of Sabah prison inmates itself are Filipinos, which constitute the highest in the state than any other nationalities. A Sabah MP, Rosnah Shirlin has called for the closure of the Filipino refugee camp in Kinarut, saying it is a threat to security in Papar. She quote;
The refugee camp has creating a lot of problems for the residents of the district. The camp has become a drugs den and the source of many other criminal activities. Over the years, many robberies had taken place in nearby villages and the culprits are mostly from the camp. Supposedly, the improved situation in the Philippines today has brought into question whether these Filipinos Moro's could still be regarded as refugees. The camp was set up on a 40-acre plot of land near Kampung Laut in the early 1980s by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). But the UNHCR had long ago stopped providing funds to the camp and as a result, many of these foreigners had been working outside the camp. The refugees had even dare to expanded the camp area, encroaching on nearby village land and today, the camp has become the biggest syabu distribution den in Papar.
The view supported by the United Sabah People's Party (PBRS) leader, Joseph Kurup, adding the Moro refugees and immigrants should take the opportunity to return and develop their homeland in Mindanao, Philippines as the peace was restored there. The former Chief Minister of Sabah, Harris Salleh has appeal to the federal government to reconsider the proposal to move the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base from Butterworth to Labuan. He suggested the air force base should be relocated to Tawau in the interest of security in the eastern Sabah. While another Sabah former Chief Minister, Yong Teck Lee has urged the federal government to take a serious action on the Philippine claim. He did not rule out the possibility of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) faction's under Nur Misuari were involved in the 2013 standoff and in all of the kidnappings cases as the former MNLF leader want to take a revenge against the Malaysian government after he been sent back to the Philippines from Sabah instead being granted a political asylum to another third world countries or OIC countries. The former MNLF leader also dissatisfied when the Malaysian government backing for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front on the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro. This view have been supported by the Minister of Home Affairs, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who cite Misuari is involved in all of the conflicts. However, in May 2015, Misuari stated that only the Sultanate of Sulu can pursuing their negotiations on the Sabah claim, distancing his MNLF group position on the Sabah conflict while acknowledge the Sabah claim as a non-issue, he stated:
The MNLF asserted that the Sabah case as a non-issue because it is the "home-base for different tribal groupings of Muslims from different regions of Southeast Asia that have enjoyed peaceful and harmonious co-existence with the Chinese and Christian populace in the area".
The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad has suggested the government of Sabah to demolished all the water villages in eastern Sabah and resettle only the local peoples there as the era of the water villages has passed and the lifestyle of the villagers there who live in the sea is not appropriate for the modern way of life in Malaysia as the nation aims for Vision 2020. While the Minister of Transport, Liow Tiong Lai has proposed to extend the area of ESSCOM and ESSZONE to cover the whole Sabah as also been proposed by Yong Teck Lee. The Malaysian government later decide to impose a curfew on eastern Sabah waters to prevent any further intrusion and started to use a radar to detect any suspicious activities on every tiny settlements along the east coast. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Shahidan Kassim also agreed that some locals together with the Filipino illegal immigrants have provide information to intruders during the invasion of Lahad Datu and other abduction incidents. In his quotation, he said:
Many locals in the east coast of Sabah originated from the Philippines and, therefore, had family or economic ties with their counterparts there. This [locals] have played a part in the intrusion in the east coast of Sabah, abductions and cross border crimes prior to the establishment of ESSCOM and ESSZONE. As a counter-measure, we will try to instill in their mindset that this is our country where we make our living together, where our children are studying and where their future lies, adding that the effort to defend the country was a collective effort.
Beside that, the continuous attacks have affecting trade relations especially to the Philippines side of Tawi-Tawi where most of their goods source are come from Sabah. Due to this, the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) has proposed a ban over the activities. But the proposal was heavily opposed by the Philippine counterparts as it would affect their regions. Since the attack by Kiram's also many overseas Filipinos in the state faced discrimination and became the possible target for retaliation especially from the local Borneo tribes due to the killing of Malaysian police who mainly comprising the indigenous Borneo races.
Territorial disputes
Sabah has seen several territorial disputes with Malaysia's neighbours Indonesia and the Philippines. In 2002, both Malaysia and Indonesia submitted to arbitration by the International Court of Justice on a territorial dispute over the Sipadan and Ligitan islands which were later won by Malaysia. There are also several overlapping claims over the Ambalat continental shelf in the Celebes (Sulawesi) Sea. Malaysia's claim over a portion of the Spratly Islands is also based on sharing a continental shelf with Sabah.
The Philippines has a territorial claim over much of the eastern part of Sabah, the former North Borneo. It claims that the territory, via the heritage of the Sultanate of Sulu, was only leased to the North Borneo Chartered Company in 1878 with the Sultanate's sovereignty never being relinquished. Malaysia however, considers this dispute as a "non-issue," as it interprets the 1878 agreement as that of cession and that it deems that the residents of Sabah had exercised their right to self-determination when they joined to form the Malaysian federation in 1963.
Geography
The western part of Sabah is generally mountainous, containing the three highest mountains in Malaysia. The most prominent range is the Crocker Range which houses several mountains of varying height from about 1,000 metres to 4,000 metres. At the height of 4,095 metres, Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain in the Malay Archipelago (excluding New Guinea) and the 10th highest mountain in political Southeast Asia. The jungles of Sabah are classified as tropical rainforests and host a diverse array of plant and animal species. Kinabalu National Park was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2000 because of its richness in plant diversity combined with its unique geological, topographical, and climatic conditions.
Lying nearby Mount Kinabalu is Mount Tambuyukon. With a height of 2,579 metres, it is the third highest peak in the country. Adjacent to the Crocker Range is the Trus Madi Range which houses the second highest peak in the country, Mount Trus Madi, with a height of 2,642 metres. There are lower ranges of hills extending towards the western coasts, southern plains, and the interior or central part of Sabah. These mountains and hills are traversed by an extensive network of river valleys and are in most cases covered with dense rainforest.
The central and eastern portion of Sabah are generally lower mountain ranges and plains with occasional hills. Kinabatangan River begins from the western ranges and snakes its way through the central region towards the east coast out into the Sulu Sea. It is the second longest river in Malaysia after Rajang River at a length of 560 kilometres. The forests surrounding the river valley also contains an array of wildlife habitats, and is the largest forest-covered floodplain in Malaysia.
Other important wildlife regions in Sabah include Maliau Basin, Danum Valley, Tabin, Imbak Canyon and Sepilok. These places are either designated as national parks, wildlife reserves, virgin jungle reserves, or protection forest reserve.
Over three-quarters of the human population inhabit the coastal plains. Major towns and urban centres have sprouted along the coasts of Sabah. The interior region remains sparsely populated with only villages, and the occasional small towns or townships.
Beyond the coasts of Sabah lie a number of islands and coral reefs, including the largest island in Malaysia, Pulau Banggi. Other large islands include, Pulau Jambongan, Pulau Balambangan, Pulau Timbun Mata, Pulau Bumbun, and Pulau Sebatik. Other popular islands mainly for tourism are, Pulau Sipadan, Pulau Selingan, Pulau Gaya, Pulau Tiga, and Pulau Layang-Layang.
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