PUTRAJAYA — The government, in moving forward, will look into the compatibility of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) with the local culture, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
He said there is nothing to be afraid of if Malaysia decides to accede to the statute. The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the ICC. It was adopted at a conference in Rome on July 17, 1998, and entered into force on July 1, 2002.
Dr Mahathir said the government had to backtrack on its decision to ratify the statute because some people twisted information when they knew nothing about it.
“But we will explain to them (the people) why the Rome Statute will not do any harm to anyone who is not a criminal,” he told the media at a special interview in conjunction with the first anniversary of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government.
Dr Mahathir said that whether a country is a party to the Rome Statute or not, the whole world will turn against it if there is wrongdoing.
Citing an example, he said Myanmar does not subscribe to the Rome Statute but the international community has condemned it and is acting against it in the case of the killing of the Rohingya.
Dr Mahathir announced last month that Malaysia was withdrawing from the Rome Statute following confusion arising politically and within society, stressing that the decision was made not because the statute is harmful to the country. — Bernama
Putrajaya may revisit ratification of UN treaties, says PM
PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Putrajaya will see if there is a need to revisit the ratification of the international treaties withdrawn and if they are compatible with the Malaysian culture.
“We will look at them and see whether they are compatible with our culture or not,” he said when asked if Putrajaya will revisit the ratification of the Rome Statute and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
The government was forced to cave in to pressures by several quarters to not accede to the UN treaties, eventually leading to an about-turn.
Asked if he foresees any objection to attempts to ratify other treaties which was part of Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto promise, Dr Mahathir said there are obstacles in the way and a lot of promises that cannot be delivered immediately.
“There are a lot of promises which we cannot deliver overnight. There are obstacles in the way.
“They are not easy to resolve. It will take time but we will try and deliver as much as possible considering the circumstance,” he said.
He told this in a group interview with the media today in conjunction with PH’s first year in power.
PH had previously stated that it will ratify suitable international conventions that are not ratified as soon as possible.
Malaysia is already a state party to three UN treaties – the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
However, attempts to ratify the Rome Statute and ICERD backfired with certain quarters playing up the race and religious issues to force the government to backtrack.
The royals, too, got into the act by opposing the international conventions, saying that they would erode their powers which are protected by the constitution. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
BERNAMA / THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
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