It seems that members of Malaysia's UMNO Youth read Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's speech on Nov. 19, and they didn't like what they heard about what he said about the Pedra Branca issue.

Members of the youth wing of the ruling party of Malaysia gathered at Singapore's High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, led by Vice-chief Khairul Azwan Harun. He delivered an official memorandum of protest to Deputy High Commissioner Mark Neo.

Said Khairul:

"If there is any issue, it should be dealt with through the right channels of diplomacy. We do not want anything that could hurt the good relations between Malaysia and Singapore as efforts are being made to strengthen the relationship between the two."

UMNO Youth Chief and Minister for Youth and Sports Khairy Jamaluddin also released a statement in Malay:

"It is very easy to gain political support by making accusations about other countries as PM Lee has done with his statement made during the PAP party convention. However unlike him, Malaysia always takes a serious view of issues of sovereignty and not just for political support for elections or political conventions only."

What did PM Lee say?

PM Lee opened his speech at the PAP party convention by speaking about foreign affairs.

Coincidentally, he began by saying that "relations with our immediate neighbours are also good" when talking about Malaysia. He said:

"With Malaysia, we are building the High Speed Rail to KL, and the Rapid Transit Link to JB which we will signed the agreement for the RTL next month. But our relations with Malaysia and Indonesia will always be complex, and issues will crop up from time to time.

Take Pedra Branca for example. It is an old subject. We thought the issue was settled permanently long ago. Because in 2008, the International Court of Justive (ICJ), awarded the Pedra Branca to Singapore.

But almost a decade later, the Malaysians have gone to the ICJ again, and they are asking the Court to reinterpret and to revise the judgment, reopening the subject. I am not sure what Malaysia’s motive is, but their General Election is coming, and maybe that has something to do with it."

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It would appear that some members of the UMNO youth wing were not happy by the reference to the upcoming General Election in Malaysia.

According to them, Malaysia's request to revise the judgment handed down by the ICJ was a serious one, based on the discovery of "new facts" in the national archives of the U.K. Said Khairy:

"This application and the second made on June 30, 2017 for a judicial interpretation was not one made lightly or without any solid basis."

The Pedra Branca saga

On Feb 2, Malaysia filed another application with the ICJ to review the judgement because of three declassified documents released by the UK’s National Archives.

These documents were discovered in the British National Archives between 4 August 2016 and 30 January 2017 and include:

• Internal correspondence of the Singapore colonial authorities in 1958.
• Incident report filed in 1958 by a British naval officer.
• Annotated map of naval operations from the 1960s.

Then on Jun 30, Malaysia filed a new application requesting the ICJ to declare that:

• The waters surrounding Pedra Branca remain within the territorial waters of Malaysia.
• South Ledge is “located in the territorial waters of Malaysia and consequently sovereignty over South Ledge belong to Malaysia.

Our own MFA released a statement on July 1 stating that:

"Malaysia’s request for the ICJ to interpret the judgment is puzzling. Singapore will therefore oppose Malaysia’s application for interpretation, which we consider to be both unnecessary and without merit”.

Just as we are confident of our case on the revision application, we are also confident that we are on strong grounds to oppose this latest application by Malaysia for interpretation. Singapore is committed to resolving these issues in accordance with international law."

And on Oct. 31, Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan stated in a Facebook post that Singapore has filed written observations in response to Malaysia's request.

Elections on both sides of the border

It's ironic that Khairy is accusing PM Lee of using the Pedra Branca for political support, when he released a statement of his own in Malay for a Malaysian audience.

If you aren't aware, Malaysia's own General Election will take place in less than 180 days, according to DPM Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Khairy himself has come under pressure this year, as the Minister in charge of Malaysia's SEA Games. Unfortunately, the games experienced some truly astounding screw-ups in front of a global audience.

Nothing like making a fuss about a neighbour to get the people at home on your side.

Top image by NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images