KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian royal commission studying cases involving three disputed islets in the Singapore Strait has proposed a criminal investigation against former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, the state news agency Bernama reported on Thursday.
Current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had previously called for a review of the 2018 decision, made when Mahathir was prime minister, for Malaysia to drop its application to review an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Singapore had sovereignty over Pedra Branca, one of the islets in question.
In 2017, Malaysia appealed to the ICJ to reassess its 2008 ruling on the territorial dispute. Singapore has administered Pedra Branca, which is called Palau Batu Puteh by Malaysia, since the previous colonial power, the United Kingdom, built a lighthouse there in 1850.
In 1979, Malaysia published a map that showed the islet as part of its territorial waters, igniting the dispute that led to the ruling by the ICJ nearly three decades later.
Malaysia said in 2017 that it had discovered new facts, which were previously unavailable, that it said would prove that Singapore does not have sovereignty over the islet.
The royal commission found that upon becoming prime minister for the second time, Mahathir made the decision to drop the appeal in a letter to the Solicitor General on May 21, 2018, and that he only informed the cabinet two days later.
Mahathir has said that he had carefully reviewed the case files and sought advice from international law specialists. They opined that the case was weak, and he recommended to the cabinet that the appeal be withdrawn.
At a press conference in June, the 99-year-old former premier said the letter only contained his opinion on the matter, and that he hadn’t made a decision yet.
“So the matter was brought by me to the cabinet and I explained everything,” he said. “The cabinet did not oppose, did not reject the idea that we should not go ahead with our move. So that was the final decision, the decision was made by the cabinet, not by me alone.”