I almost fell off my chair, not because I was extremely sad that Malaysia lost her island but from the extreme laugh, probably one of funniest episodes – the verdict of 28-year territorial dispute on a small island. The International Court of Justice’s 12-4 decision in favor of Singapore on Pulau Batu Puteh (known as Pedra Branca to Singapore) was actually a slap on Malaysia’s face, considering that the small island is merely 7.7 nautical miles from Malaysia but is a whopping 25.5 nautical miles from Singapore. The fact is Malaysia has just lost her sovereignty on Pedra Branca.
What made the whole thing amusing was that Malaysia Foreign Minister Rais Yatim actually has the cheek to declare it was a win-win situation. You meant you prefer some rocks over an island, never mind the dispute area consists of only 8,560 square meters? Whether you like it or not Pedra Branca is an island, thus the name “Pulau” Batu Puteh. No wonder Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was pleased with the verdict because Singapore won an island while Malaysia won some rocks. That’s right! Malaysia won Middle Rocks which loosely translated to rocks – that’s how the name Middle Rocks comes into the picture in the first place, no?
And why did Malaysia lost the island? There’re three reasons but the main and most important reason was a reply from a Johor state official saying that the state did not have sovereignty over the island. International Court of Justice case acting President Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh, when delivering the court’s decision in The Hague yesterday, said Johor initially had sovereignty over the island but subsequently lost its ownership to Singapore because of above reasons. I’m speechless but I only can conclude that Malaysia deserve it because of laziness and stupidity. Too lazy to respond to Singapore’s conduct on the island and too stupid in sending a reply denying sovereignty which costs the island.
Malaysia did not only lose the island but also all natural resources and minerals in the territorial waters of Pedra Branca. But could the result be any difference if Malaysia engaged better lawyers. Singapore engaged two top international lawyers – Professor Alain Pellet of the University of Paris X-Naterre and Queen’s Counsel Ian Brownlie. On the other hand, the team from Malaysia comprising Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail and his son Federal Counsel Faezul Adzra Gani Patail had to resort to using a blog’s unverified photo of Pedra Branca (Right) to present their case to the judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The blog was said to be newly created and the jokes were that Malaysia was so complacent (arrogant?) and ill-prepared that they have to resort to present false evidence.
Maybe Malaysia government thought it could win the case easily since the top brain AG Abdul Gani Patail was leading the team. Furthermore how many lawyers in the world could make a public announcement that only three people and no others are involved in the murder case (Altantuya), even before the trial started? If this was not a show-case of top-brains I do not know what is *grin*. Perhaps Malaysia Attorney General should be confined to domestic case only such as to suppress oppositions or anyone who dare to question the government’s policy and nothing else. That was the AG’s specialization area so do what he was good at. What a bunch of arrogant “Jaguh Kampung” or Village Champions – simply unbelievable!
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May 24th, 2008 by financetwitter
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Comments
Last 40years legacy:
Build a team that SIMPLY CAN’T COMPETE ON WORLD STAGE PERIOD
Jaguh Kampung happy with chicken feed instead of the whole farm, sigh!
The letter from the state secretary could be the main cause but why he did it. Sheer laziness or brainless!! Meanwhile over the years, inaction in trying to claim back the island had practically ceded the right to Singapore. The competency of our lawyers and the AG also contributed to the loss. Malaysia’s race based policy and practice in employment and promotion caused the loss of the best brains to serve other nations, instead of Malaysia. The real quality of one’s manpower decide the victory in all aspects of life.
This is the results of top brains never ever have competed with top brains. I am amazed at the near perfect CGAP of students in local public U, from kids I knew from childhood who are only average and became brilliant in local public U.
You forgot to mention that this AG demeaned his office by appearing in Session Court before his subordinate – a Session Court Judge and charge 31 poor buggers for attempted murder of 1 policeman in the Hindraf demo! 31 attempted murders and the policeman survived!
That’s not the end. He then shamelessly withdrawn the attempted murder charges despite justifying them earlier.
So sad indeed! The BN people have been exposed for what they are. They don’t compete fairly in Malaysia so how to compete internationally? All they are good at is BULLY the people, steal from and lie to them e.g the Bandar Mahkota Cheras incident, the “Balkis” dramas in Selangor & Penang, the pig-farm issue in Selangor!!!
The stupidity and arrogance of the Malaysian Government has been internationalised – what a bunch of idiots!
This is NOT the only losts sufferred by Malaysia to Singapore. The ex-PM of Malaysia who always blames others for his mistakes, could have negotiated the Water Agreement in 1987 when the agreement expired. Whilst he was busy scheming the multiple ways to loot Malaysia, he forgot that water agreement has expired and it took him more than 15 years to found out. What we have in Malaysia is generation after generation of SUPER EFFICIENT MINISTERS. Their specialty however is filling their own pockets with ill-gotten billions of ringgit .
I absolutely agree with you. What win-win situation? We totally lost an island to Sigapore! I don’t know if it’s the incompetence of our lawyers, or the statement from Johor state official that made us lose but I think Malaysia better learn from this one!