KUALA LUMPUR: Former Attorney General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali did not tell the truth in his interview with a local daily on the case concerning the sovereignity over Pulau Batu Puteh, also known as Pedra Branca.
Apandi’s interview was published in Mingguan Malaysia on July 1 in an article titled Malaysia ada bukti kukuh (Malaysia has solid proof).
The Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC), in a statement, said Apandi had claimed that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had focussed on a letter from the then acting state secretary of Johor dated 1953, which was forwarded to Singapore.
“According to Apandi, the letter stated that Malaysia was not interested in Pedra Branca.
“He said Malaysia did not raise the issue of the authority of the acting state secretary of Johor and that Malaysia lost the case because of this reason.
“The record shows that Apandi’s statement is not true.
“The Malaysian delegation had submitted at length on that issue before the ICJ. The arguments made during the oral hearing of the original case can be found in the ICJ Document CR 2007/30.”
The AGC said although the ICJ did not rule in favour of Malaysia on this issue, it had however concluded that it did not consider the 1953 letter as it was just a response to an enquiry seeking information.
“It is absolutely not true to claim that Malaysia was unsuccessful because it did not raise the issue of authority,” the statement read.
On Apandi’s statement that the ICJ had not made any decision in respect to South Ledge (Tubir Selatan), the AGC said Malaysia and Singapore had established a Joint Technical Committee tasked to implement the 2008 judgment.
The judgment stated that the sovereignty over the place would belong to the state in the territorial waters where it is located.
The AGC said the oral hearing dates for the Application for Revision and Request for Interpretation were fixed from June 11 to 22.
It said that after the formation of the new government following the 14th General Election (GE14), and with Apandi on garden leave, the matter was brought to the attention of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for instructions.
It said one of the two local lawyers appointed by Apandi were instructed to brief Dr Mahathir on the matter in May.
“During the briefing, Dr Brendan Plant, representing the international consultants, maintained and reiterated their collective written opinions dated January 2017.
“The two local lawyers, Datuk Abu Bakar As-Sidek Mohamed Sidek and Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin (who have been working directly and slosely with Apandi) did not contradict the opinion of Dr Plant,” the statement read.
Also present during the briefing were representatives from the AGC and Wisma Putra.
The AGC said Dr Mahathir decided it would be best to discontinue the proceedings after he considered the views that were presented to him, along with other national interest matters - including costs.
The prime minister’s decision was subsequently reported to the new Cabinet at its first meeting on May 23, where it was also endorsed.
The decision, including its grounds was also conveyed to the Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.
“The AGC wishes to highlight that in accordance with the usual practise of the ICJ, Malaysia has no objection for the written pleadings for both Application for Revision and Request for Interpretation to be made accessible to the public via the website of the ICJ.”
It was reported that government had dropped its move to challenge the ICJ’s decision on the sovereignty of Pulau Batu Puteh.
The judgment awarded sovereignty of the islet to Singapore following both countries raising claims to it to the ICJ.
On Feb 2, last year, Malaysia filed for a revision of the ICJ judgment, citing three documents recently declassified by the United Kingdom, to support the application.
These are, the internal correspondence of the Singapore colonial authorities in 1958, an incident report filed in 1958 by a British naval officer, and an annotated map of naval operations from the 1960s.
The documents, which were unknown to both ICJ and Malaysia at the time of judgment in 2008, were discovered in the National Archives between Aug 4, 2016 and Jan 30, 2017.
The ICJ in The Hague was scheduled to hold public hearings on Malaysia’s request for reinterpretation of the ICJ judgment concerning sovereignty over Pedra Branca.
The hearings, at the Peace Palace in The Hague, were supposed to be held from June 18 to 22.
Pulau Batu Puteh is located 7.7 nautical miles off the coast of Johor’s Tanjung Penyusuh.