PETALING JAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad acted unilaterally on the Batu Puteh sovereignty issue when he was the prime minister, according to three former ministers who served in the Cabinet in 2018.
In a joint statement, former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, former defence minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu and then transport minister Anthony Loke said Dr Mahathir had decided on May 21, 2018, not to pursue the claim for Batu Puteh in a written statement to the Solicitor General without referring to the Cabinet.
Dr Mahathir, then the Langkawi MP, was in his second tenure as prime minister.
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In the current federal administration, Mohamad is the Agriculture and Food Security Minister while Loke still holds the Transport portfolio.
“The matter was also conveyed to Singapore before the first Cabinet meeting on May 23, 2018.
The Cabinet was only informed of the decision two days after it was made and we stress here that we were only informed under ‘other matters’... It was not a discussion to make a decision,” the trio said yesterday.
As such, they said, the issue of supporting or rejecting the matter does not arise as the window of opportunity was lost when Dr Mahathir issued a written statement.
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“We are of the opinion that Dr Mahathir should take full responsibility for the decision, rather than place it on the shoulders of people who were not involved.
“We are confident the other Cabinet ministers at the meeting on May 23 can attest to this,” they added.
Their statement was issued following the press conference held by Dr Mahathir on Tuesday where he said the decision not to appeal the International Court of Justice’s decision to award Batu Puteh to Singapore was made with the then Cabinet’s full agreement in 2018.
Separately, at the Home Ministry’s monthly assembly yesterday, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail also said the decision on Batu Puteh was made prior to the Cabinet meeting in May 2018, in line with the chronology stated in Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on the matter.
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“It seems like he (Dr Mahathir) is grasping at straws by attempting to implicate the ministers in his Cabinet then,” the Home Minister told a press conference.
Saifuddin Nasution, who was also a minister helming the domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism ministry then under Dr Mahathir’s rule, said the people should follow the facts as stated in the RCI report.
