‘Both Sides Have Won’: Ministers

Source : TODAY, Monday, May 26, 2008

WHEN the next annual bilateral games between their foreign affairs officials are hosted in Malaysia soon, Ministers George Yeo and Rais Yatim already have a rendezvous point in mind.

Said Mr Yeo: “Minister Rais doesn’t play golf; I don’t play badminton, so we thought we will go fishing. Maybe, we will go fishing between Pedra Branca and Middle Rocks.”

This light-hearted quip exemplified the positive tone of their media doorstop yesterday in Yangon, with both ministers calling the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision on Friday a double victory.

“To use Minister Rais’ description, both sides have won and that is good,” Mr Yeo said. Both men are now bent on pushing bilateral ties “to a higher level”, he said, adding: “I remember the song in the movie 881, that when both sides get something, it is easier to keep relationships.”

Dr Rais said: “What has been an issue for almost the past three decades is now no more an issue. It is just to work out how the judgment ought to be translated and understood.”

The ICJ awarded Pedra Branca to Singapore while Malaysia got Middle Rocks, and the South Ledge outcrop goes to the state in whose territorial waters it is located.

At a community event yesterday, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong described this as a “fair and best outcome” for both neighbours, and said the judgment had “a hint of Solomon” — a reference to the biblical king legendary for his wisdom.

“A tricky knot has been untied,” he said, commending the calm reaction in both countries.

Mr Goh — who as Prime Minister had, in 1994, decided with his Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamed to bring the Pedra Branca dispute to third-party arbitration — expressed personal disappointment that Singapore was not awarded Middle Rocks.

But he was confident the matter of South Ledge would be settled “amicably”, with both sides drawing up the respective boundaries in accordance with international law.

Mr Yeo said a committee involving officials from both sides will meet in two weeks to “go through the judgment in detail and to work out the transitional arrangements”.

In the meantime, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has advised Malaysians to stay away from Middle Rocks until further advice. “Otherwise, there will be some confusion on the ground,” he said, in response to conflicting reports on whether local fishermen could now operate freely in the waters off Middle Rocks.

Not everyone was sanguine about the ICJ’s judgment. Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman thought the ICJ’s decision might lead to more overlapping territorial claims between Singapore and Malaysia.