The New ‘Sultan of Sulu’

                         Datu Mohd Akjan bin Datu Ali Muhammad,

                                 The New ‘Sultan of Sulu’

In the first week of February 2011 a local Sabahan sub-contractor and businessman Datu Mohd Akjan bin Datu Ali Muhammad, was declared as the real ‘Sultan of Sulu’ at a ceremony in Kota Kinabalu. The event was witnessed by 60 representatives from the various Tausug communities of Tawi-Tawi, Palawan, Sulu and Sabah. With the proclamation of Datu Akjan as the reigning Sultan of Sulu with the title Sultan Paduka Mahasari Maulana al-Marhum Sultan Shariful-Hashim II, the Sulu ‘government’ officially relinquished its claims to Sabah. The rationale was that since the 1970s the Malaysian government had been kind to Sulu exiles who fled from the Philippines.

Immediately after the proclamation, local politicians from East Malaysia raised the question of how a Malaysian citizen could unilaterally declare himself as the sovereign of another country. The former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee of the Sabah Progressive Party urged the Malaysian government to clarify the matter, citing the allegations against Mohd Akjan and stating that he had once been allegedly detained for fabricating identity cards in Sabah.

The former chief minister also noted that it was highly irregular to have a Malaysian citizen proclaim himself to be the Sultan of a separate state and head of a foreign government-in-exile, and not to pledge loyalty to the King of Malaysia and the Malaysian constitution. Other Sabah politicians including former senator Chong Eng Leong also added that this recent development might contribute to more foreigners coming to settle in Sabah.

Sultan Warrior of Bangsa Sug

Panglima Hassan (Central figure), killed in action against the Americans on March 4, 1904 at Bud Bagsak  ("Mount Bagsak"). 

Hassan was the district commander of Luuk, Sulu, under the Sulu Sultanate. He was the 

first Tausug leader to defy the sultan’s order, that, in the interest of peace, the people should acknowledge American sovereignty. As an Imam (roughly translates to "prayer leader"), Panglima Hassan looked at the intrusive American "infidels" as threats to Islam and Moro society . The Tausug Moros had allowed the Spaniards to build a garrison in Siasi and a church in Jolo by virtue of the 1878 peace pact, but that was all. After 300 years of almost continuous warfare, the Spanish had known better than to try and impose their authority over the fiercely independent Sulu people. But the Americans --- backed by utterly lethal modern weapons --- had no such reservations.
In early November 1903, Hassan and about 3,000 to 4,000 warriors besieged the American garrison in Jolo. Armed only with krises (wavy-edged swords) and some old rifles, they bottled up the Americans for a week before being forced to withdraw.  Following a battle, Hassan was captured while bathing near his camp at Lake Seit in late November 1903, but he soon escaped. He resumed the war in February 1904 when, together with Datu ("Chief") Laksamana and Datu Usap, they attacked the pro-American Sultan Kiram and his forces in the battle of Pampang. He lost in the battle, and was later killed with his two companions along the crater of Bud Bagsak. Hassan had 17 wounds in his body, but died game, crawling with his kris in his mouth toward the nearest wounded American soldier  when the last bullet dispatched him.