KUALA LUMPUR — The cabinet will recommend for the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to declassify the final report of a special task force which reviewed Malaysia’s sovereignty of the Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge islets.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said this special task force’s report also came to a similar conclusion as the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report that criminal investigations be held in relation to Malaysia’s loss of Batu Puteh to Singapore.
“The cabinet was informed today that the special task force report presented the same recommendations as the RCI report on Batu Puteh. In a way, both (reports) came to the same conclusion.
“The special task force report recommended that charges be brought based on misfeasance or the abandonment of duties by a public officer. This was also recommended by the RCI (in its report),” Fahmi told a post-cabinet meeting press conference in Putrajaya today.
The special task force’s report was presented to the cabinet on October 7, 2022, when the previous government was still in power.
As such, Fahmi said it is “odd” that certain opposition lawmakers, who were then part of the cabinet, are now up in arms over the recommendations in the RCI report, which target former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“The (special task force) report was initiated under the administration of the ninth prime minister (Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob).
Kota Bharu (Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan), Larut (Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin) and Putrajaya (Datuk Mohd Radzi Jidin) were among the cabinet members then.
“It is odd for (Takiyuddin, Hamzah and Radzi) to act as if what the RCI had recommended is far different from the (special task force) report that they themselves read when they were part of the cabinet,” Fahmi said.
The declassified RCI report, which was made public on December 5, concluded, among others, that Mahathir acted unilaterally in 2018 when he, as prime minister, decided not to pursue a review of the ICJ’s 2008 decision to award Batu Puteh to Singapore.
This had caused Malaysia to lose Batu Puteh permanently, with no avenue for appeal.
The RCI also proposed initiating criminal investigation proceedings against Mahathir for deceiving the cabinet by deciding and informing Singapore first of the decision not to pursue the ICJ’s ruling, and then only informing the cabinet later.
The RCI report was debated in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, with the government moving a motion of support for the RCI’s findings. However the outcome was postpone to an undetermined date after the sitting adjourned.
During the debates, Takiyuddin, Hamzah and Radzi were among opposition MPs who objected to the motion, arguing that the RCI’s investigations had been done in bad faith to pin the blame solely on one man.
Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman had also said during the debate yesterday that it was “near inconceivable” an ultranationalist like Mahathir would willingly concede territory to Singapore.
To this, Fahmi denied revenge or ultranationalism as motives, stating that the parliamentary motion to support the RCI’s findings was to ensure improvements are made to the government’s handling of sovereignty and territorial issues.
Mahathir has since argued that the decision to withdraw the appeal was made collectively by the cabinet, asserting that cabinet members then had every opportunity to reject his proposal on the matter.
The 99-year-old former prime minister also said he did not believe Malaysia should pursue a review of the ICJ’s ruling as both Malaysia and Singapore had agreed to abide by the court’s decision. – December 13, 2024
