On the ‘point of no return’

POINT of no return" originated as an aviation term referring to the point on a flight at which, due to fuel consumption, a plane can no longer return to the airfield it took off from.

Eddie O. Barrita

Small bites

View profile

President Noynoy Aquino said the situation of the armed followers of Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III holing up in Sabah was nearing “the point of no return.”

Does it mean they could no longer return to the country or Malaysian authorities would never return Sabah to the sultanate?

***

PNoy called on Kiram to order his followers to come home, but he was defiant, saying his men will stay put in the disputed territory they have been occupying for nearly three weeks.

“I have already given my order to them. And they have to stay put in that area,” an ailing Kiram said in a muffled voice a news briefing in his house in Taguig City.

Sultan Kiram probably saw no point for his followers to return if he cannot push his sultanate’s historical claim over Sabah.

***

PNoy reminded Kiram he is bound by the Constitution and its laws and warned him of the prospects of going to jail.

But Kiram, 74 and a diabetic, said going to jail is okay for him.

“An old man going to jail? It’s OK…I have always respected the Constitution. My brother went down there with his men and settled down in their own homeland. Is that a violation?” he said.

***

In a statement, Kiram said his brother, Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram and his 235 men “will not initiate the violence” but “are prepared to defend our lives and aspirations.”

He said the Sabah issue “can be peacefully settled without threat, but in a diplomatic way.”

“Is it hard for Malaysia to sit down in a square table and to diplomatically settle the issue on the claim? All we ask is for Malaysia to sit down with the Kirams and come up with a win-win solution,” Kiram said.