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Territorial disputes frequently emerge in the wake of new nationstates asserting their sovereignty and expanding their influence. These claims often hinge on the nebulous grounds of historical entitlement and legal precedent. Sixteen years post-independence from the United States, the Philippines formally staked a claim to Sabah in 1962, a move initiated under President Diosdado Macapagal and escalated by the more assertive policies of President Ferdinand Marcos. The main objective of this article is to explore the degree to which socioeconomic cooperation has played a role in rejuvenating and bolstering the Philippines’ foreign relations with Malaysia amidst the Sabah dispute. This historical analysis utilises qualitative methodologies to scrutinise primary and secondary sources, encompassing official records and documents pertinent to the dispute over the Philippines’ claim to Sabah. Despite the long-standing and potentially destabilising territorial dispute over Sabah, the Philippines and Malaysia transitioned from confrontation to collaboration, leading to robust socio-economic ties and increased regional stability within ASEAN. The problem lies in understanding how this diplomatic shift occurred, the strategies employed by the administrations of Presidents Aquino and Ramos in redirecting the focus from territorial claims to mutual economic growth, and the implications of this shift for both the bilateral relationship and the broader ASEAN dynamics. The findings indicate that, in contrast to the approaches of Presidents Diosdado Macapagal and Ferdinand Marcos, Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos skilfully shifted the focus from the Sabah issue to fostering robust socio-economic collaboration. This pivot served as a critical turning point, establishing the foundation for a comprehensive, multi-layered cooperation that is free from the constraints of the Sabah dispute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Philippines has implemented a policy of dormant claims and chosen to disregard the issue of claims over Sabah for over two decades. However, during this period, various provocations have been stirred up by local media practitioners and Filipino politicians to revive claims over Sabah through various media channels. Thus, this historical research was conducted to analyze the current development of the claim by examining the Philippines’ online media reports and argumentative rhetoric used to revive claims on Sabah. This study is a historical research that employs qualitative methods by analyzing primary sources such as newspaper articles, treaty documents, British colonial records, and secondary sources. The scope of the study is focused on analyzing the rhetoric of the Filipino claims over Sabah in online Filipino media especially during the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022). The dispute over Sabah has widely disseminated through online media channels and informal platforms such as social media. Media practitioners disseminate various messages and false information regarding the Sabah issue with the aim of revitalizing collective memory and influencing historical perspectives on the claim to Sabah. Particularly during the administrations of Presidents Diosdado Macapagal and Ferdinand Marcos, Filipino political leaders also encourage the use of specific terminologies to create a narrative emphasizing that Sabah still belongs to the Philippines but has been “seized” by the British and subsequently the Federation of Malaya. This study is significant as it demonstrates that the extensive utilization of social media and easily accessible online newspapers has been fully exploited by Filipino diplomats and top leaders to challenge Malaysia’s sovereignty over Sabah, thereby fueling propaganda aimed at reclaiming Sabah. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses the issue of land and debt problems among the Malays of Kedah based on local material, which is the Letters of Law (SUU). This study was conducted to identify to what extent the debt problems and loss of land faced by the Malays had caused them distress from 1882 until 1909. The problems of debt and loss of land faced by the Malays caused them to live in hardship. Changes in land ownership and its administration had changed the Malays perception toward the importance of owning lands. They then perceived the land ownerships more than just for self-sufficiency but as future capital and long-term investment as well. This study uses a qualitative method to analyze Letters of Law obtained from the National Archives of Malaysia Perlis/Kedah Branch as well as other primary and secondary sources. Although the land office that existed in Kedah in 1882 demonstrated the advancement and modernisation of the Kedah land administration, findings of this study show that debt issues and problems regarding loss of land among the Malays was very serious. Debt issues and problems regarding loss of land not only involved poor farmers but also involved the upper echelons of society and also state government officials. This is closely associated with the change in land administration policy carried out by the state government of Kedah. Traditional methods of land administration was no longer practiced and the state government of Kedah introduced a land ownership system that had close resemblance to the system in the West. Therefore, the Malays, especially the farmers faced a multitude of land related issues such as the process of acquiring land, land ownership issues, tax and land rent that were putting a strain on the lives. The results of the study show that the problem of debt and land loss among the Malays were dreadful because of changes in the land administration policy. Matters related to land in Kedah, such as the process of obtaining land, land ownership problems, taxes and land rent had burdened the farmers. Although there were efforts from the Kedah government to improve land legislation, those efforts still did not benefit the lower-class Malays. The weaknesses in structural and enforcement of land affairs have caused the lives of Malays to become increasingly cramped and burdened with debt problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policy of the Philippines' claim to Sabah is significantly influenced by the development of the Philippines' internal politics and the ideology supported by its presidents. During the regimes of President Macapagal and President Marcos, the Philippines' foreign policy towards Sabah was fundamentally influenced by the irredentism policy in order to claim that region. The claim over Sabah became the Philippines' national agenda that was previously confined to the territorial issue of the Sulu Sultanate. The changes that transpired in the people's struggle, especially since the administrations of Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos, have brought to life the new idea that true nationalism is based on the "people's interests" as expressed in the People's Power Revolution. Both presidents later changed the Philippines' policy towards Sabah to a dormant claim after all efforts made to drop the claim to Sabah met with failure. Thus, this article aims to assess the continuity and changes of the Philippine claim policy on Sabah and the impact of the idea of nationalism on the formation of the policy since the administration of President Macapagal until that of President Fidel V. Ramos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]