PETALING JAYA: Kedah menteri besar Sanusi Nor has insisted that his state’s claim over Penang is nothing like the failed Sulu heirs’ bid for Sabah.
Sanusi said the Kedah sultanate still exists, whereas the Sulu sultanate had long ceased to exist, Sinar Harian reported.
“We will act constitutionally, within the constitutional framework, not outside it. We will proceed according to existing laws and will not violate anything.
“The Sulu issue is not within Malaysia, and the Sulu sultan no longer exists. We (Kedah) still exist, so it is completely different,” he was quoted as saying.
Sanusi also said Kedah’s final submission on the claim had been presented to the state government, with the legal team’s full documentation expected within three to four months.
He said any further legal action should be pursued through the proper channels and in accordance with the law.
Sanusi was responding to Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow who said the failed Sulu claim showed that historical assertions could not override constitutional sovereignty.
Chow, who was debating the king’s royal address in Parliament yesterday, said that the Malaysian government’s consistent legal position on Sabah had set a clear precedent that sovereignty was determined by the Federal Constitution, not pre-independence arrangements or historical narratives.
Sanusi has maintained that Penang belongs to Kedah, claiming that the island and Seberang Perai were leased to the British in 1791 for 10,000 Spanish dollars. He has also formed a legal team of historians and lawyers to pursue court action on these “historical rights”.
The Penang government maintains that the sultanate effectively ceded the territories after Merdeka.
