Need to know: The Royal Commission of Inquiry into how Malaysia lost the strategic Batu Puteh to Singapore will hopefully reveal why we did not pursue the matter following the International Court of Justice’s 2008 decision. — Filepic/The Star
MALAYSIA may never regain Batu Puteh following the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision in 2008 to award the islet to Singapore, but the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) will help answer some important questions.
Top of the agenda is surely the decision of then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to drop a review application to the ICJ.
It’s crucial for Malaysians to know the reason for the decision because it was as good as waving the white flag before even going through another round of battle at the ICJ. Never mind if the Singapore legal team had a superior argument and better preparation than our side, the dispute had not been resolved yet.
New evidence was discovered supporting Malaysia’s case, but the opportunity was lost when the Pakatan Harapan government led by Dr Mahathir at that time chose to drop the suit.
So, the lingering question is whether the decision to drop the case was solely Dr Mahathir’s.
What were the dates on which he signed off the documents to call off the case, and did he seek the opinions of his Cabinet members before making his decision?
If not, then this is surely a case of gross negligence since it involves national sovereignty.
The people of Johor, and the rest of Malaysia, surely want to know whether Dr Mahathir consulted the Sultan of Johor before he made the decision not to pursue the case, and if not, what was the rationale behind that because Johor is obviously a stakeholder.
Was Johor’s sovereignty insignificant to the government at that time, or was His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar’s opinion irrelevant, or was this just Dr Mahathir’s prejudice towards palace views showing? All loaded-gun questions that surely need answering.
Setting up the RCI is the right step after the special task force, put together by the Federal Government, reviewed the actions and legal issues regarding Batu Puteh and nearby Batuan Tengah and Tubir Selatan.
Then PM Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had commissioned a special task force headed by former attorney general Tan Sri Apandi Ali to review the case.
The task force was given six months to reveal its findings and recommendations to the Cabinet for further action.
In 2022, Ismail said there may have been “possible negligence” when the former Pakatan government decided to withdraw the appeal, implicating Dr Mahathir.
When Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim took over as premier, he instructed the then AG, Tan Sri Idrus Harun, to review matters pertaining to the Batu Puteh claims so that negotiations with Singapore on the issue could be more fruitful without affecting bilateral ties.
He had also asked the AG to study the impact of the ICJ decision to award legal jurisdiction of Batu Puteh to Singapore.
Idrus had said that based on the report of the special task force, the Cabinet viewed the act of withdrawing the review application as “not in order and improper”.
Let’s hope the composition of the RCI will be revealed once the incoming Yang di-Pertuan Agong begins his five-year reign on Wednesday.
We definitely want to know the decision-making process, and as Pasir Gudang Member of Parliament Hassan Abdul Karim said, if the decision to withdraw the review application was made by Dr Mahathir alone, then the ex-PM has committed treason, betraying the nation in his personal capacity.
Treason may not be a criminal offence, and no one has been charged with such an act as far as I know, but surely no person of standing, especially Dr Mahathir, would want to go down in history as having betrayed the nation. Putting treason into context, it was once deemed a crime punishable by death in many parts of the world.
The investigations of the RCI will certainly be revealing, if not contentious, as it’s almost certain Dr Mahathir will be summoned to attend the hearing to defend himself for his decision to drop the legal pursuit.
So who was responsible for waving the white flag over the Batu Puteh legal appeal issue? Shouldn’t we have planted the Jalur Gemilang on that rock instead?
