Govt not taking legal action to reclaim Batu Puteh, says Azalina

 

Batu Puteh was awarded to Singapore in 2008. (AFP pic)

PETALING JAYA: The government is not pursuing any legal action to reclaim Batu Puteh, the sovereignty of which had been awarded to Singapore in 2008, according to law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said

However, Putrajaya is negotiating with Singapore on Batu Puteh’s maritime boundary delineation.

She said negotiations were carried out by two committees, namely the Malaysia-Singapore Joint Technical Committee and the Committee for Boundary Delimitation established pursuant to the agreement.

“In this regard, both parties, namely the Malaysian and Singapore governments, have agreed that the content of the negotiations, including decisions and negotiation notes, are classified as confidential and cannot be disclosed to third parties without the written consent of the parties involved,” Azalina said in a written parliamentary reply.

She was responding to opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin (PN-Larut) who wanted the prime minister to state the legal actions taken other than the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to reclaim the rights of Batu Puteh.

The Malaysian government had submitted an application on February 3, 2017 to seek a revision of the International Court of Justice’s decision to grant Singapore legal jurisdiction over Batu Puteh in June of that same year.

However, the application was withdrawn by the Pakatan Harapan administration led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad before the June 11, 2018 hearing.

In response, Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar said in 2021 that the government’s decision to withdraw the review application should be explained in detail because failing to pursue the matter was equivalent to conceding defeat.

In November 2021, the Cabinet decided to form a special task force to investigate the rationale behind the previous government’s decision to withdraw its application to review the case.

Without endangering bilateral ties, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim demanded in December 2022 that the Batu Puteh claim be reexamined through immediate and substantive negotiations with Singapore.

Meanwhile, transport minister Loke Siew Fook said MyHSR Corporation Sdn Bhd (MyHSR Corp) was currently evaluating seven concept papers from local and international firms and consortiums on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) project.

He said MyHSR Corp needed two months to evaluate the concept papers for the project.

“The evaluation results will be submitted for government approval to shortlist the consortiums for the next process, which is the request for proposal,” Loke said in a written parliamentary reply.

In January, MyHSR Corp chairman Fauzi Abdul Rahman said the findings from the request for information would be presented to the transport ministry and Cabinet for deliberation, following the concept proposal submitted by the consortiums.

Malaysia and Singapore jointly announced the termination of the HSR project on Jan 1, 2021, due to their inability to come to a consensus on modifications that Malaysia had proposed before the project agreement expired on Dec 31, 2020.

However, in August last year, Anwar announced that Malaysia would present Singapore with a revised proposal for the HSR project. - FMT