KOTA KINABALU: The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to examine the handling of the Batu Puteh case will be able to assess what happened during the government's management of it in the past.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said that there was previously a task force that looked into the issue, but there were constraints on conducting further investigations.
As a result, she said, an RCI was proposed by the task force to investigate the matter, leading to the decision of its establishment to continue the investigation into the Batu Puteh issue.
"As a result, there was (a proposal) to establish an RCI, so it is a follow-up to that task force.
"We need to evaluate what actually happened," she said at a press conference after launching the Justice On Wheel program at Kampung Madsiang, near here, today.
Azalina said the Batu Puteh issue, like the Sulu claim issue in Sabah, is closely related to the matter of national sovereignty emphasised by the unity government under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
She said her ministry would present the National Immunity Act to protect the country from any threats to its sovereignty in the upcoming parliamentary session.
"In this parliamentary session, I will bring the National Immunity Bill, where the issues of Sulu and Batu Puteh claims are related to sovereignty.
"It must be understood that the issue of sovereignty cannot be decided by one person alone; we cannot make mistakes, and we need to learn from the past.
"Sovereignty is related to borders, islands; it involves many things. This RCI will also help the government find the process and procedures of sovereignty, which agency is responsible for sovereignty.
"(Whether it is) the National Security Council or the Cabinet, it must be established. But we cannot come up with a specific creation without the overall outcome from the task force," she said.
However, she said the results of the task force are already available, but it is not something that can be announced to the public as it is still under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), while the RCI is more open.
She said the people must understand that the country, at this moment, with the current political landscape under Anwar's leadership, is very concerned about sovereignty-related matters.
"What happened with Batu Puteh cannot happen to other islands under our control, whether at the state or federal (level).
"We need to look at this for the future of the country. Anwar wants sovereignty to be the main topic of conversation for Malaysians.
"But the government is very fair; we want to investigate what went wrong, where we went wrong so that we can correct it. Just like the Sulu claim case, whether we like it or not, the government has made mistakes," she said.
She said only with the stability of the current government can responsibilities be effectively carried out, including defending the nation's sovereignty.
If the government is not stable, cases such as the Sulu claim case in Sabah could happen as there are parties that want to destabilise the government, she said.
"So, the people must let the government finish its work before the 16th general election (GE16), and then choose which government that they prefer."
Also present was the entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister and Penampang member of parliament Datuk Ewon Benedick.