Task force on Batu Puteh used to nail former PH govt, says Ramasamy

 

In 2008, the International Court of Justice decided that Batu Puteh belonged to Singapore. (AFP pic)

PETALING JAYA: Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy said the move to set up a task force to probe the Batu Puteh case was politically motivated targeting the former Pakatan Harapan (PH) government and its prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said it was part of the political propaganda by the Barisan Nasional-led government, adding that it was a “pipe dream to regain the lost Batu Puteh”.

“The task force on Batu Puteh was intended more to shame the former PH government and its prime minister rather than to regain the island back,” he said in a statement.

He added that it was no coincidence that former attorney-general Apandi Ali, who was sacked by Mahathir, was appointed to head the task force in October last year.

Last week, the task force presented its report to the Cabinet.

On Oct 13, caretaker Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the Cabinet was told that there was possible negligence and oversight on Mahathir’s part over the Batu Puteh claim.

Ismail said the Cabinet was informed by the task force that Mahathir might have made a mistake in his decision to withdraw an application to review the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) award of Batu Puteh’s sovereignty to Singapore.

When asked about the matter, DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng said yesterday that two of his Cabinet colleagues at the time had recommended that Malaysia withdraw its challenge of the award of sovereignty over Batu Puteh to Singapore.

Lim, who was finance minister in the PH government, said that he did not “follow” the issue on Batu Puteh. However, to his recollection, the law minister and the foreign minister had made the recommendation to withdraw the challenge.

The current foreign minister, Bersatu MP Saifuddin Abdullah, was also the foreign minister in the PH government, while the late Liew Vui Keong was law minister. Liew, who was from Warisan, died in 2020.

In 2008, the ICJ decided that Batu Puteh belonged to Singapore, Middle Rocks to Malaysia and South Ledge to the state in the territorial waters in which it is located.

In June 2017, Malaysia applied to the ICJ to request an interpretation of the judgment. In 2018, Mahathir withdrew the application to overturn the ICJ’s ruling awarding legal jurisdiction of Batu Puteh to Singapore. - FMT