KUALA LUMPUR – Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has accused three former Cabinet ministers of lying about the decision to withdraw the application for the interpretation and revision of the Pulau Batu Puteh case.
Dr Mahathir expressed his embarrassment, stating that the ministers were part of the Cabinet in 2018.
“Shouldn’t they also be called in for questioning? Somehow, the Cabinet minutes were leaked, and these minutes show that the claims made by these three ministers are false, lies,” he said.
“I feel ashamed because these people were in my Cabinet, but they lied,” he added.
Dr Mahathir made the remarks at an event marking the departure of a humanitarian mission to Kedah and Perlis at the Perdana Leadership Foundation building in Putrajaya, today.
On December 12, the three former Cabinet ministers in Dr Mahathir’s administration—Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu, and Anthony Loke—asserted that the decision to discontinue the International Court of Justice (ICJ) review and interpretation of the Pulau Batu Puteh case was made solely by Dr Mahathir without Cabinet consultation.
In a joint statement, they said that Dr Mahathir had decided on the matter through a letter dated May 21, 2018, to the Attorney General.
A report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Batu Puteh, Batuan Tengah, and Tubir Selatan, released on December 12, revealed that the government under Dr Mahathir’s administration had unilaterally decided to withdraw the application for a review and interpretation of the ICJ’s 2008 ruling, which awarded Batu Puteh to Singapore.
The commission concluded that the decision was made without Cabinet consensus and recommended a criminal investigation into Dr Mahathir under Section 415(b) of the Penal Code for deception.
Last Tuesday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said tabled a motion regarding the RCI in Parliament as a platform for all Members of Parliament to discuss the issue of Batu Puteh, and other disputed areas.
However, the motion on the RCI was debated and concluded without any resolution.
Commenting further, Dr Mahathir stated that there were 13 members in the Cabinet at the time, and that his actions were in accordance with the rules.
“At that time, there were 13 of us; we had just formed the Cabinet. What I did was in accordance with the rules, but still, they say it wasn’t a Cabinet decision,” he said.
“I won’t give my opinion, but I will say that we (the Cabinet) decided to proceed with the case,” Dr Mahathir continued.
“We could have informed Singapore… but we told Singapore because the ICJ meeting was coming soon. If we made an agreement with Singapore, we couldn’t change the agreement unilaterally; we would have to get the other party’s agreement.”
“That’s why we had to inform them (Singapore). If we hadn’t told them we wanted to proceed, Singapore would have rejected it, and it would have gone back to the previous situation,” he explained. – December 17, 2024