DR Mahathir Mohamad must explain why his Pakatan Harapan (PH) government decided not to seek a review of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision on Pulau Batu Puteh when new evidence has emerged in favour of Malaysia, Mohamed Khaled Nordin said today.

The Umno vice-president and former Johor menteri besar said two of the three new pieces of evidence were documents that could be accessed only after 2008 at the expiry of their “confidential” status.

Elaborating on the new evidence, Khaled said the three documents clearly indicated that the sovereignty of Pulau Batu Puteh remained with Malaysia.

The first document, he said, showed that the Singapore officials had never considered Pulau Batu Puteh as part of Singapore.

The second showed that the British navy had admitted the waters surrounding the three disputed islands belonged to Johor.

And the final document showed that the British navy’s operational maps showed that Pulau Batu Puteh was not part of Singapore’s territory, he said.

“All these documents clearly showed that Pulau Batu Puteh was not part of Singapore’s territory,” he said.

“This new evidence added value to Malaysia’s decision in wanting the ICJ to review its original finding.

“So, why, in the face of this new evidence, did the government decide not to proceed with the review application?”

Earlier this week, Dr Mahathir defended his government’s decision to drop the ICJ review application on the grounds that Malaysia would be branded a pariah if it did not uphold the court’s decision on the Pulau Batu Puteh issue.

In a blog post, the Langkawi lawmaker said only a dishonourable country will renege on its promise. 

“Final is final. Any country that does not respect its promise will no longer be able to make agreements with other nations. It will be a pariah,” he wrote on his blog.

He said the decision on who is the rightful owner of Pulau Batu Puteh was referred to the ICJ and both Malaysia and Singapore agreed in writing they will abide by whatever decision the ICJ comes up with. 

On May 9, 2003, Malaysia and Singapore agreed to bring their dispute over the sovereignty of Pulau Batu Puteh and two nearby maritime features – Middle Rocks and South Ledge – before the ICJ. 

In 2008, the ICJ gave the sovereignty of Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore. The court ruled that Malaysia owned Middle Rocks while it refrained from awarding South Ledge to either country, stating that it belonged to the government in whose territorial waters it is located. 

In July 2017, Malaysia also filed a separate application requesting the ICJ to interpret the 2008 judgment on Pulau Batu Puteh. 

However, shortly after PH won the 2018 general election, Dr Mahathir announced that Malaysia would accept the ruling and would not pursue the matter.

The present government has established a special task force to look into that decision.

Khaled said Dr Mahathir had failed to address the real issue of why his government had failed to proceed with the review application despite having new evidence.

“If Dr Mahathir was advised to do so by some international legal experts, who are these experts, and what was their advice in the contexts of the new evidence?

“What is clear is that the PH government had been negligent in defending Malaysia’s sovereignty, and should be held responsible for their actions,” he said. – October 22, 2021.