KUALA LUMPUR – Former chief justice Tun Md Raus Sharif is chairman of the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into how Malaysia handled an international court’s decision on Pulau Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge.
Former Federal Court judge Tan Sri Zainun Ali is the RCI’s deputy chairman, the legal affairs division of the Prime Minister’s Department said in a statement today.
Other RCI members whose appointments were approved by the King are lawyer Datuk Baljit Singh Sidhu, former Universiti Malaya law dean Prof Johan Shamsuddin Sabaruddin, constitutional and administrative law expert Prof Datin Faridah Jalil, Johor state finance officer Datuk Mohammed Ridha Abd Kadir, and the Marine Department’s Southern Region director Dickson Dollah.
Zamri Misman, who is director-general of the legal affairs division in the Prime Minister’s Department, is the RCI secretary.
The RCI was announced on January 24 after the cabinet agreed to it.
Calls for an RCI were made soon after the government in 2018, under the leadership of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, withdrew an application to overturn the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) 2008 ruling that Batu Puteh belongs to Singapore and Middle Rocks to Malaysia. South Ledge was awarded to the state “in the territorial waters of which it is located”.
The application to revise the ICJ’s ruling was filed the previous year, when Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali was attorney-general, on grounds of evidence in three documents declassified by the United Kingdom’s National Archives.
The withdrawal by Dr Mahathir’s administration meant that Malaysia could no longer challenge Singapore’s sovereignty over Batu Puteh, as applications for revision must be made within 10 years of the judgment.
The withdrawal drew flak from various quarters, including Umno, on the issue of territorial sovereignty.
Subsequently, on October 29, 2021, Putrajaya agreed to form a special task force aimed at reviewing the actions and legal issues in the three maritime features’ case.
On January 23 last year, then attorney-general Tan Sri Idrus Harun said the government’s decision to withdraw the review application was “irregular and inappropriate” after a special task force on the matter presented its findings in a cabinet meeting on January 11.
On October 13, 2022, then prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said there was a possibility of negligence and a mistake by Dr Mahathir when Malaysia missed the chance to file a judicial review over the ICJ’s decision over a decade ago. – February 14, 2024