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Malaysian Attorney General Idrus Harun has said that the withdrawal of review applications related to Pedra Branca were improper.

Decision was not in order and improper: Malaysian AG

Shortly after his appointment in December last year, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim took up the Pedra Branca issue again.

He instructed Idrus to conduct a review into the 2018 decision to withdraw an application for revision and request for an interpretation on the ICJ's ruling, as reported by Bernama.

The issue surrounding Pedra Branca is considered to be settled by Singapore, as the matter was decided by the International Court of Justice in 2008.

"Final review" done

Idrus said on Jan. 27 that the Special Task Force set up to conduct the  review had submitted its final review to the Malaysian cabinet on Jan. 11.

The cabinet's decision on the same day was that the 2018 decision to withdraw the application for revision and request for interpretation was "not in order and improper".

Idrus said that the Malaysian government nevertheless respected the judgement of the ICJ.

The next step for the Attorney General's Chambers was to study the recommendations made by the Special Task Force, and determine if there had been any misfeasance (unintentional error) and what actions should be taken.

Idrus concluded by saying that the issue was of vital importance to the Malaysian government as it related to the "strategic interest and sovereignty of the nation".

Robustly defend Singapore's sovereignty

Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in October 2022 that the nation was ready to "robustly defend" its sovereignty over Pedra Branca, no matter what legal action Malaysia may pursue.

It also noted that an application for revision of the ICJ's 2008 decision cannot be made after 10 years from the court's decision in May 2008, and that Malaysia and Singapore had both said they would accept and abide by the court's decision, which was final.

Re-emergence

The island of Pedra Branca is a perennial issue in Singaporean - Malaysian bilateral relations and there are a multitude of views on the Malaysian side regarding the ICJ decision.

However, there are implications in domestic Malaysian politics too.

The PM at the time of the 2018 withdrawal, Mahathir Mohamad, has regularly opined that on balance the ICJ's decisions have worked more in favour of Malaysia than against.

He regularly brings up two separate ICJ cases that Malaysia has won regarding disputes in East Malaysia as examples, implying that to question the Pedra Branca decision is to question the other cases as well.

However, the Sultan of Johor as recently as June last year said that the Malaysian federal government's decision to withdraw, undertaken while Mahathir was prime minister, was a slight against Johorian sovereignty.

Malaysian politics in play

On Dec. 14, Anwar announced that his government would review the 2018 decision to withdraw, but in his announcement said that he wanted the review so that "there can be more meaningful negotiations" with Singapore.

Mahathir and Anwar worked together as part of the Pakatan Harapan coalition in 2018, with Mahathir publicly promising to hand over power to Anwar, before its fall from power due to Mahathir's then-party Bersatu leaving the coalition.

In the recent Malaysian general election of 2022, Mahathir and Anwar stood as candidates from different parties and coalitions. Mahathir lost while Anwar won his seat, and managed to become prime minister.

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Top image via Wikipedia