Contentious island: Pulau Batu Puteh was awarded to Singapore in the 2008 world court decision.
KOTA TINGGI: The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on the Batu Puteh case showed Malaysia had strong grounds to appeal a 2008 world court decision that awarded the island to Singapore, says Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.
The Defence Minister said that when he was Johor mentri besar in 2017, the state government had acquired newly declassified documents from the British government on the status of Pulau Batu Puteh.
“The British government’s declassified documents not only stated but proved that Batu Puteh can be claimed as it belongs to Johor,” he told reporters here yesterday.
The state had then forwarded to the Federal Government those documents which could have been used to appeal the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) 2008 decision, said Mohamed Khaled.
However, despite being furnished with these documents, the Federal Government in 2018 under prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had decided to not pursue the appeal at the ICJ, he added.
It was important for Malaysia to file its appeal in 2017 as the government only had a certain time frame to do so after which it would not be able to stake its claim over it, he said.
When Johor gave the documents to the Federal Government in 2017, then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak did file an appeal at the ICJ.
“But after that, a decision was made to no longer pursue the appeal resulting in Malaysia losing Batu Puteh.
“As stated in the RCI report, the decision to not pursue the appeal was made by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad alone without any discussion,” he said referring to one of the RCI’s findings which were released on Dec 5.
He spoke to reporters at an event by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) at Felda Bukit Aping Timur on Dec 8.
The RCI, which was set up in February, was tasked with looking into how the government handled sovereignty issues involving Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge.
This was after the Federal Government withdrew the appeal to the ICJ which had in 2008, ruled that Batu Puteh belonged to Singapore while Middle Rocks was awarded to Malaysia.
The ICJ ruled that the ownership of South Ledge should be determined based on the delimitation of territorial waters, with sovereignty over South Ledge belonging to the state in the territorial waters of which it is located.
In its Dec 5 report, the RCI recommended that Dr Mahathir be investigated over his role in the 2018 decision to withdraw the ICJ appeal and that the former premier be investigated under Sections 415(b), 417, and 418 of the Penal Code.
In his reaction to the report, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the RCI had found elements of treason as his predecessor should not give up one inch of land.
“The RCI revealed weaknesses and, from a certain angle, treachery was committed because we should have fought till the end for every inch of land.
“This is not a light matter, whereby any offence in relation to surrendering our sovereignty is deemed a major treason.
“But the legal process must be respected and we will follow that,” Anwar said.
