The giant slayer

IT APPEARS now that the Sabah standoff is no longer a standoff, but a game of hide and seek, or a game of search and destroy, or a game of winner takes all.

The truth, however, is that the Sabah standoff is, and never was, a game. There are insinuations and accusations that there is, or was, a principal by inducement, that is why the Sultanate of Sulu sailed the seas to go to and be at what they claim they own.

It is, supposedly, an act to sabotage, not only the developing peace agreement with the MILF that is on its way to being signed sooner or later, but also the cooperative relationship and collaborative relationship between the Philippines and Malaysia. Be that as it may, whether or not these accusations and insinuations have basis in fact, the Sabah standoff that has so far resulted in the loss of lives and the loss of property and the displacement of innocent civilians, can still not be called a game.

The Sultanate of Sulu is a story of grief and anguish, of frustration and exasperation, of long lost glory, but with pride intact and honor intact as if the word of the leader is still the law of the land in this modern time, and never without the courage to offer life for the crown. Thus, they will fight, and will die fighting, if that has to be their fate. This cannot be called a game.

The government of the Philippines seems unwilling to fight with the Sultanate of Sulu, and seems just too willing to fight against the Sultanate of Sulu, maybe for its own reasons, perhaps for its own purposes, but this is the way it is. Hence, it wants the armed followers of the Sultanate of Sulu to surrender without conditions, to go back home and maybe land in jail, to just shut up and to just keep quiet, to not jeopardize the impending peace agreement with the MILF, to not drag and bring Malaysia into launching a cross-border war, and many other things that may be right or may be wrong or otherwise cannot be classified simply as right or wrong. This cannot be called a game.

The government of Malaysia has deployed the might of its police and its military, its bombs and its bullets, and everything it has in its arsenal and its armory. It is acting like it can get away with anything, that it has every right, that it has every privilege, that it has every discretion, to do whatever it wants to do, because nobody will stop them, because nobody can stop them. This cannot be called a game.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is silent. The United Nations (UN) whispered something that nobody heard. The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) said that the Sabah standoff is an internal issue that is better left internal. This cannot be called a game.

Everybody else is noisy -- with all sorts of arguments, with all sorts of opinions, with all sorts of suggestions, with all sorts of criticisms, with all sorts of calculations. This cannot be called a game.

Presently, nobody can tell exactly how this story, this is not a game, will end if it ever will. For all we know, this might just be a chapter. For all we know, there might be a sequel. We do not know. We do not know.

Of course, this can also be the end to the never-ending centuries-old tale of the Sultanate of Sulu. The end. The end.

Hopefully, the bloodshed will already stop, the bloodbath will already stop. Hopefully, we will find out already, if the Sultanate of Sulu will finally close its book and die a natural death, or if the Sultanate of Sulu will finally be victorious and begin a new legend that it is the giant slayer.

Comment are most welcome. Please send them to onesmallvoice2013@gmail.com.