PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad took a dig at Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim over his claims that the government did not consult the Conference of Rulers in its decision to accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“He is not an elected representative. He is only speaking for himself,” Dr Mahathir told reporters in Parliament today.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement today that an in-depth and thorough study on all aspects of the matter had been carried out before the decision to accede to the Rome Statute was made.

The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court. It was adopted in Rome on July 17, 1998, and came into force on July 1, 2002.

“Article 40 of the federal constitution clearly states that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, in the exercise of his functions, shall act in accordance with the advice of the prime minister or the cabinet.

“Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, on February 15, informed the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad of the government’s decision to accede to the Rome Statute,” the statement said.

It said that the decision was in line with the “New Malaysia” government’s policy to uphold the principles of truth, human rights, rule of law, fairness, and accountability.

The statement said that Malaysia “stands firm that the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, namely genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression should be brought to justice”.

In his statement on Twitter yesterday, TMJ said that the rulers were not informed of this and were undermined by the government.

“I was told by His Majesty DYMM Tuanku that the rulers were never consulted.

“If this was the case, you have undermined the Conference of Rulers,” he said in a Twitter post tonight.

Tunku Ismail had also said that Malaysia’s move to accede to the Rome Statute would render the Malay rulers irrelevant and impact the status of Malays and Islam in Malaysia.

As of March 4 this year, 124 countries have become signatories to the Rome Statute.

The signatories are countries with constitutional monarchy systems, such as Belgium, Cambodia, Denmark, Japan, Jordan, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Samoa, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. – March 11, 2019.