Did trio have to be told to speak up, says Dr M

 

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said as far as he can recall, all the Cabinet ministers agreed with his views on the Batu Puteh issue.

PETALING JAYA: 

Dr Mahathir Mohamad has hit back at three former ministers in his Cabinet who said they had no opportunity to air their views on the Batu Puteh issue when he raised it during a 2018 Cabinet meeting.

The former prime minister said he found it perplexing that the reason given for the trio’s failure to state their stance on the issue was that they were only “informed” of his decision.

He questioned whether informing others of an issue meant it could not be debated, adding that this was not a valid reason to refrain from providing opinions or thoughts.

“Do they need me to explicitly tell them to give their opinions or views before they do so?” he said in a statement.

“If my views on the issue were wrong or they disagreed with them, would they not oppose them or offer their own views?”

Mahathir said ministers are expected to pay attention at Cabinet meetings and voice their views if they have any, and that those who remain silent are regarded as having agreed with what was presented or discussed.

“As I recall, during the Cabinet meeting, it was minuted that all members, including the three of them, agreed with my views … on the issue,” he said.

Earlier today, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Loke Siew Fook and Mohamad Sabu said they were only informed of Mahathir’s decision not to proceed with the applications to review and interpret the 2008 ruling by the International Court of Justice on Batu Puteh.

The trio also said the issue of whether anyone objected or supported the decision did not arise as there was “no room for any decision-making” as Mahathir had already done so in writing.

Wan Azizah, Loke and Mohamad were the deputy prime minister, transport minister, and defence minister, respectively, at the time.

On Tuesday, Mahathir denied acting unilaterally when making the decision not to proceed with an application to the ICJ for a review of its decision awarding sovereignty over Batu Puteh to Singapore.

Mahathir said Wan Azizah, former finance minister Lim Guan Eng, and former home minister Muhyiddin Yassin were among those present during the Cabinet meeting when the issue was raised.

He was responding to the findings of a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) which said he had made a unilateral decision on the matter.

The RCI said the then prime minister had written to the solicitor-general on May 21, 2018, stating that “to my view, this effort need not be continued”, a reference to the ICJ applications.

The solicitor-general then informed Singapore that Malaysia would be dropping both legal applications, the RCI’s declassified report said.

It said Singapore was informed of this at 9am on May 23, 2018. The Cabinet only met at 9.30am that day and discussed the issue later in the meeting under “other matters”. - FMT