'What's the real reason?' Umno veep presses Dr M on Batu Puteh

 

Umno vice-president Mohamed Khaled Nordin has pressed former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to reveal the "real reason" why his government decided to drop the review application of the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) decision on the Pulau Batu Puteh case.

Mahathir had said the country needed to keep its promise to accept the ICJ's decision.

However, Khaled (above) did not appear satisfied with the answer.

"Mahathir did not answer the question about Pulau Batu Puteh.

"The question is what is the real reason for the Pakatan Harapan government to not proceed with a judicial review of the Pulau Batu Puteh case? " Khaled asked in a statement.

The ICJ in 2008 had ruled in Singapore's favour, deciding that sovereignty over the island off the coast of Johor belonged to Singapore.

New evidence

The government under former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak had filed a review of the decision in 2017 in light of new evidence.

Mahathir in 2018 said the government was looking at dropping the judicial review although in 2019 his administration said it was proceeding.

"Did Mahathir forget that two of the new pieces of evidence were only accessible after 2008?" said Khaled.

He added that they were documentary evidence that the British navy recognised Pulau Batu Puteh as part of Johor's territory and Singapore had not considered the island as its own.

The ICJ had ruled that while Pulau Batu Puteh was originally part of the Johor sultanate, Malaysia had failed to act while Singapore exercised sovereignty over the island for over a century, thus losing control of the territory.

Khaled said the ICJ should evaluate the new evidence.

"If Mahathir was advised by a panel of international legal experts (on the Pulau Batu Puteh review), who were they and what was the advice given?

"What is clear is that the Harapan government had been negligent in defending the sovereignty of Malaysia and should be held responsible," he added. - Mkini