Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has denied being treacherous to the country, saying that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision on Pulau Batu Puteh was accepted in line with commitments made to other countries.
The former premier said the decision was made with the full agreement of the Cabinet in 2018, as the Middle Rocks awarded to Malaysia are considered to be more valuable than Pulau Batu Puteh, which was awarded to Singapore.
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The former premier said the decision was made with the full agreement of the Cabinet in 2018, as the Middle Rocks awarded to Malaysia are considered to be more valuable than Pulau Batu Puteh, which was awarded to Singapore.
Read more at https://tinyurl.com/2yh3xwes
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you for coming to this BC. This BC is about the claim that Pulau Batok Bukit or Petrobranka
00:14should, we should appeal to the ICJ for definition, explanation, etc. The decision to drop the
00:26decision to review the ICJ's decision was on the advice of experts. There were several
00:39experts who gave their opinion. The most important expert is Professor Shaw, QC. And there is
00:55also Dr. Brendan Plante, but he's not the principal. The principal is Professor Shaw, QC.
01:05And this man is an expert in international law. And their view is that, on the other
01:21hand, this is Shaw's view, that says something potentially adverse to Malaysia's interests.
01:31If we follow with questioning the ICJ, the ICJ might very well reverse their decision
01:41and we will lose even middle ground. So that is why we took time to consider. And as usual,
01:53whenever the Prime Minister, in that case, I was the Prime Minister, when I studied it,
02:00I felt that we should drop the claim. And this was conveyed to the Cabinet. The Cabinet
02:08sometimes debates, sometimes they don't. Unless if they have anything to complain or object
02:17to the decision that should be taken, they could have spoken against it. But none of them said
02:26anything. So we have to assume that all these ministers agree. And they are still in the
02:32government. These ministers are still in the government. They should actually be called as witnesses
02:39to verify whether they said anything or not. As far as we know, they didn't. Some of them should be
02:54called as witnesses. And at the hearing, the same thing is that the hearing is secret. And I wasn't
03:04called as a, I was called only as a witness. But apparently, the whole objective of the RTI was to
03:16point out that I made a wrong choice without consulting the Cabinet. That is not true. I mean, we
03:25consulted the Cabinet, we consulted the experts, and then make a decision. You have to make a decision.
03:35You can't just leave it open like that. But they are trying to say that although I informed the Cabinet,
03:45it is not valid. I don't know what they mean by being not valid. Because they were there. These were people
03:55who are ministers, and ministers normally talk. I have had instances, I've been Prime Minister twice,
04:04I had instances where my proposal was rejected by Cabinet. Members of the Cabinet rejected it.
04:13So, these people were in a position to reject my proposal, but they did not. And therefore, the decision is
04:24by the Cabinet, not just by me alone. Although they seem to keep on repeating that I made the decision all by
04:35And that is not true at all. And you know, this publication, a lot of these things are blanked out.
04:4347 pages.
04:4447 pages. So, even this document, lots of things are hidden. I mean, it should be a full document.
04:58I mean, it is something that is of interest to the public. But they issued this with this cancellation.
05:08So, this paper is presented seeming to pinpoint that I was the one who was responsible. It was not me alone.
05:22It was the Cabinet. But of course, they cannot very well charge the whole Cabinet. So, they want to charge me
05:30under criminal law. I mean, what do I gain from that? I gain nothing. It is in the interest of the country
05:40that I made that decision. And I know that middle road is valuable to us, and we can develop it.
05:49The point I would like to make here, but to charge me as a criminal, under criminal law, I have never worked for Singapore.
06:01Everybody knows that I have been very difficult with Singapore. Singapore is difficult to deal with
06:10because they keep on postponing decisions or demanding that all the problems we have with Singapore
06:17must be solved at one go. And that was not possible. So, with Singapore, we should continue talking with them
06:27to get these things resolved. But as far as Petrobranka is concerned, we have already decided to go to the ICJ
06:37and the decision of the ICJ must be accepted by us.
06:47For more UN videos visit www.un.org