Pulau Batu Puteh: Is Mahathir saying S’pore has sovereignty?

ADUN SPEAKS | If the International Court of Justice (ICJ) opinion was final in awarding the sovereignty of Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore in 2008, then why the grand talk of reviewing the decision in 2017 by way of an appeal?

As the appeal process was started under the government of Najib Abdul Razak, it was abruptly halted due to the general election in 2018, which the Pakatan Harapan coalition won and Dr Mahathir Mohammed became the prime minister.

Within a short period of Harapan’s administration, the decision was made not to appeal against the ICJ ruling on Pulau Batu Puteh.

Mahathir might say that the ICJ’s decision was final and that it served no purpose to review the early position.

Moreover, the cost of the appeal was high.

I am not sure whether Mahathir was saying that the earlier decision of the ICJ was final or that the appeal against the earlier decision was withdrawn because it would have been difficult to win the case.

Even if Malaysia had no prospect of winning the case, an application should have been made to the ICJ.

Politically, it would have made sense for Malaysia to await the decision from the ICJ on the appeal.

Mahathir must have left the decision to the ICJ whether the judicial review succeeded or not.

Why the haste in withdrawing the appeal?

I understand that the former attorney-general Mohd Apandi Ali was entrusted with the judicial review.

A few weeks back, he blamed the Harapan government for abandoning it.

Recently, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob appointed Apandi to a task force to review and report whether Malaysia has the chance of getting the island of Batu Puteh back.

Mahathir, however, had said that the matter of Batu Puteh had been settled once and for all.

He argued that since Singapore and Malaysia jointly submitted the case to the compulsory adjudication of the ICJ, the decision has to be accepted.

If this was not done, then Malaysia would not gain the respect of the international community of nations.

It is not about disrespecting the agreement with Singapore or living to the expected norms of international relations.

Since when did Mahathir care about honouring or respecting Singapore or the international community?

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad

There is no question of not honouring the agreement that led to the ICJ decision on Batu Puteh.

Challenging an earlier decision on the basis of new evidence is entirely possible.

Such a challenge does not mean Malaysia is going against international norms and practices.

It was within the right of Malaysia to prepare an appeal under Najib’s administration.

Even though the appeal was done in a hurried manner, it was the right thing to do.

However, the change of the government in 2018 sealed the fate of the appeal.

If the appeal was not well prepared or shoddy, Mahathir should have blamed Najib’s government.

But by not proceeding with the appeal, Mahathir should be blamed. He should not conveniently wiggle out of the situation.

He can say whatever he wants to cover up for the terrible loss of Malaysia’s sovereignty over Batu Puteh. - Mkini

---

P RAMASAMY is Perai assemblyperson and Penang deputy chief minister II.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.