COMMON conceptions of Sabah include a bountiful frontier blessed with natural resources that draw the envy of its contemporaries.
With a vast landscape roughly equal to a medium-sized European country, timber, natural gas, a rich biodiverse ecosystem and an equally rich myriad of local ethnic groups, Sabah, in a vacuum provides an abundance for the pursuit of statecraft and nation-building.
However, Sabah’s comparative advantages aren’t just confined to its essential qualities but its geostrategic position.
Its West coast faces the South China Sea, the busiest shipping lane, its East coast is flanked by the Celebes Sea and the straits of Makassar, and to its North, the Sulu acts as the gateway between Sabah and the equally peripheral Southern Philippines.
