Pembentukan Malaysia dan Rancangan Alternatif Filipina Menuntut Sabah Pasca Kegagalan Misi Irredentism Filipina, 1963-1965 (The Formation of Malaysia and The Philippines’ Alternative Plan To Claim Sabah After Its Unsuccessful Irredentism Mission, 1963-1965)

Abstract

After the Philippines failed in its irredentism mission to claim Sabah before the formation of Malaysia as well as to thwart the idea of Mighty Malaysia from being realized, it then demonstrates another new phase of Philippines’ struggle to claim Sabah under the administration of President Diosdado Macapagal. Nevertheless, in this phase, Macapagal faced a dilemma and challenging situation whether to continue with his prior planning to claim Sabah or establish the diplomatic relations with Malaysian Government and simultaneously recognizing the Malaysia’s sovereignty. The situation was getting more intricate when the Philippines had to be a mediator between Malaysia and Indonesia in order to put an end to the Confrontation that had been launched by the Indonesian Government. The Philippines reluctant to recognize the Malaysia’s sovereignty that was newly-established had raised a huge criticize and denouncement from the regional countries, Britain and United States of America. The foreign policy of the Philippines towards Malaysia that had been influenced by President Sukarno also had been received massive criticisms from some of the Philippines leaders who believed that Macapagal was deliberately tried to delay the process of recognizing Malaysia. President Macapagal who was looking for another method or the best formula to pursue his claim to Sabah finally adopted the unilateral approach whereby he made an attempt to bring the Sabah issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and United Nations (UN) as an aftermath of Malaysia’s firm decision not to consider the claim. In sum, this article aims to analyze the development of the Philippines claim to Sabah after the formation of Malaysia and the multilateral relations between the Philippines-Malaysia-Indonesia within the last two years of Macapagal’s presidential. To achieve this goal, a multiple resources and historical records had been analyzed thoroughly including the records and documents from the National Archive, London.