Don't back down on Batu Puteh, Ikatan Youth tells gov't

Ikatan Youth chief Shahir Adnan has urged the government to reconsider its decision to withdraw its case on Pulau Batu Puteh.

Though small, Shahir said, the island has strategic value as it sits on the route between the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea.

“When Malaysia drops the suit, this means Singapore would have sovereignty over this crucial patch of sea.

“Though the island is merely the size of a football field, it is not impossible for it to be expanded to the size of 100 football fields through sea reclamation,” Shahir said in a statement yesterday.

Pulau Batu Puteh is located a mere 7.7 nautical miles (14 kilometres) off the coast of Johor on the eastern approach into the Singapore Strait from the South China Sea.

Despite its proximity, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had awarded sovereignty over the island to Singapore in 2008 on grounds that the city-state had the Horsburgh Lighthouse on the island for 130 years without protest from Malaysia.

Malaysia then filed a fresh application in February 2017 urging the court to overturn its 2008 ruling claiming that it has discovered new documents in British archives that would back its claim on the rocky outcrop.

On Friday last week, the AFP reported that Malaysia has dropped its suit.

The ICJ reportedly cited a letter from Malaysia dated May 28 that “notified the court that the parties had agreed to discontinue the proceedings in the aforementioned case.

Consequently, the court made an order recording the discontinuance following the agreement of the parties... of the proceedings instituted by Malaysia against Singapore and directing the removal of the case from the court's list.”

A hearing was originally scheduled to start on June 11. -Mkini