PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been told to attend the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the sovereignty of Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge.
In a statement through his lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali, Dr Mahathir said he received a subpoena on Friday (May 31) which requires him to attend the RCI on June 12.
According to the former Langkawi MP, he will attend the session as instructed while calling for the inquiry to be made public.
“My lawyer and I had expected that we would be called to attend the entire proceedings since I am involved in the matter which the RCI is discussing.
“As mentioned by my lawyer, this is based on the legal provisions in Section 18 of the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950 which obligates me or my lawyer to be present throughout the proceedings until completion.
“Aside from that, I am hoping that the RCI is held in the open and the public can follow the proceedings fully,” he said in the statement.
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Dr Mahathir said given that he had been accused of several things regarding the Batu Puteh issue, the proceedings should be documented in the media.
“And the accusations were made by (some) members of the current Cabinet, claiming that I made decisions secretly and on my own.
“If these accusations can be made openly, why do my answers and explanations (to the RCI) need to be made in private?” he questioned.
Dr Mahathir also insisted that all the decisions he made regarding the matter when he was prime minister were based on the advice and views of lawyers and legal experts appointed by the government at the time.
“In addition, before the decision was made, I brought the issue to the Cabinet.
“Some of the Cabinet members at that time have been reappointed to the current one.
“Due to that, it is necessary for me or my lawyer to be present to follow this proceeding from beginning to end to find out if all those involved in the decision-making were called, and if not, why not; and if so, what did they say.
“Otherwise the objective of the RCI as a ‘fact-finding’ effort... strays from justice.”
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On Feb 14, His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia consented to the setting up of the RCI.
The RCI comes after the loss of Batu Puteh to Singapore following a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in May 2008, and the subsequent decision by the government in 2018 to withdraw a review application of the court’s decision before it was heard in June that year.
The dispute over Batu Puteh and the nearby rock outcrop between the two countries started in 1979 and was referred to the ICJ in 2008.
The court ruled that Pedra Branca belongs to Singapore while Batuan Tengah belongs to Malaysia, with the sovereignty of Tubir Selatan remaining unclear.
On Feb 3, 2017 the Malaysian government filed an application for a revision of the ICJ’s ruling in awarding legal jurisdiction of Batu Puteh to Singapore in June the following year.
However, the then Pakatan Harapan administration under Dr Mahathir withdrew the application before its scheduled hearing on June 11, 2018.
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This led to an outcry from several quarters, and in 2021, Sultan Ibrahim, as Johor Ruler, demanded a clear explanation as to why the Federal Government dropped the review application.
His Majesty said that not pursuing the case was as good as admitting defeat even before going into the legal battle in the ICJ.
The RCI is chaired by former chief justice Tun Md Raus Sharif, with former Federal Court judge Tan Sri Zainun Ali as deputy chairman.
Other members include legal expert Datuk Baljit Singh Sidhu, former dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Malaya Prof Johan Shamsuddin Sabaruddin, constitutional and administrative law expert Prof Datin D. Faridah Jalil, Johor financial officer Datuk Mohammed Ridha Abd Kadir, and South Region director of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency Dickson Dollah.
