Malaysia's cabinet agreed on Jan. 24 to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to look into issues surrounding islands in the Singapore Strait.

Specifically, the RCI will investigate the handling of matters related to the sovereignty case on the islands.

On the rocks

Chief Secretary to the Government Zuki Mohd Ali released a statement on Facebook on Jan. 24.

Members of the RCI will be recommended to the Yang di Pertuan Agong, Malaysia's king, and will "take into account the composition of experts" with "extensive experience" in judiciary, legislation and public administration.

These experts would be required to be able to carry out investigations in a "transparent, fair, and impartial manner" in order to avoid "any issues involving conflicts of interest".

Recent statements and negligence

Zuki's statement ties in with recent statements made by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as well as recent governments.

Singapore considers the issue of Pedra Branca as settled, and Anwar has said on multiple occasions that he does not intend to dispute the island's sovereignty.

Anwar, in a visit to Singapore in January 2023, said that Malaysia would no longer dispute the International Court of Justice's ruling on the islands.

But he also said:

“We have taken a very strong position, the present cabinet, expressing our regret for failure of the then Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad, not to resort to appeal when we lost the case in the ICJ.”

However, Anwar said that Malaysia would continue to raise issues related to Pedra Branca with Singapore, such as environmental issues.

Also in January 2023, Malaysia's Attorney General had called the decision made in 2018 by former PM Mahathir Mohamad to not appeal the ICJ's decision as "not in order and improper".

The New Straits Times, when reporting on the RCI, noted that former PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob had said there was "possible negligence and oversight" on the part of Mahathir of the issue.

Mahathir himself has said that losing the islands was "no big deal".

Robust defence

The three islands in question are Pedra Branca, know to Malaysians as Batu Puteh, as well as the Middle Rocks and South Ledge.

The islands were the subject of disputed sovereignty, and the case was brought before the ICJ in 2003.

The ICJ decided that sovereignty over Pedra Branca belongs to Singapore, sovereignty over Middle Rocks belongs to Malaysia, and sovereignty over South Ledge belongs to the State in the territorial waters of which it is located.

In 2018, the government under then-Prime Minister Mahathir decided not to lodge an appeal against the ruling, allowing the ten year period in which Malaysia was allowed to appeal the ruling to lapse.

At the time Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that they were "happy to agree" with Malaysia's withdrawal.

In 2022, when Ismail Sabri again questioned the ICJ ruling, MFA responded by saying that Singapore was prepared to "robustly defend" its sovereignty over Pedra Branca.

MFA previously pointed out that both Singapore and Malaysia publicly announced that they will accept and abide by ICJ's decision, which is final.

Related story

Top image via Wikipedia