Rocky outcrops for Malaysia, ICJ rules
AS THE International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered on Friday a near two-hour verdict to end a three-decade dispute over Pedra Branca, it seemed for a time the decision would go to Malaysia.
But just as the ICJ concluded that sovereignty of Pedra Branca had passed to Singapore over time, the judgment presented in The Hague eventually swung the Republic's way.
At the end, 12 judges found in favour of Singapore, while four dissented.
They had heard arguments from both countries based on early 18th-century history to more recent times.
Six months after hearing the case, the ICJ distilled these arguments into an 84-page judgment, which its acting president presented to the two parties.
Malaysia had based its case on the weight of history, and Singapore on acts of sovereignty. Beginning as he did in chronological fashion, Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh revealed that the former had made its case about its original title.
"Malaysia has established to the satisfaction of the Court that ... in 1844, this island was under the sovereignty of the Sultan of Johor," he said.
The argument was enough for Malaysia to get Middle Rocks, one of two nearby rocky outcrops that were also under contention, by a count of 15 to one. But the argument was not strong enough to win the case on Pedra Branca. Sovereignty of the latter hinged on what happened from 1953 onward, according to the ICJ judgment.
Going by correspondence between both countries over Pedra Branca, as well as the actions taken by Singapore on the granite rock and the general lack of response by Malaysia to those actions, the ICJ decided that sovereignty had passed to Singapore.
And Singapore is "pleased" with the judgment, even if it was "not totally in Singapore's favour", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press statement.
At The Hague, Deputy Prime Minister S Jayakumar told reporters: "We would have been happier if the Court had awarded all the three features in Singapore's favour, and we have argued before the Court that all these other features were part of Pedra Branca, but the Court has found otherwise and we accept the judgment of the Court."
But Pedra Branca was the key feature in the dispute, noted Prof Jaya and the MFA.
Singapore Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh said that the ratio of
12 to four judges was a good one.
Judges Gonzalo Parra-Aranguren of Venezuela, Bruno Simma of
Germany, Ronny Abraham of France and John Dugard of South Africa, whom Malaysia had nomnated to sit on the panel, dissented.
Prof Koh declined to speculate on what could have swayed the ICJ in favour of Singapore, but he did admit that the "first one to one-and-a-half hours were a bit of a cliffhanger".
He added: "We have made a strong argument in favour of the view that in 1847, Pedra Branca and the two related features were terra nullius (no man's land). The Court found against us. That of course, was a great disappointment."
The ICJ had added to the nerves of the Singapore team - led by Prof Jaya, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong and Prof Koh, who was serving as the Agent of Singapore to the ICJ for this case - by revealing that no conclusions about sovereignty could be drawn based on the construction and commissioning in the 19th century of the Horsburgh Lighthouse, which Singapore had used in its case.
"Fortunately, the rest of the judgment was in our favour," said Prof Koh.
In a media statement, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also welcomed the result. "I will be writing to (Malaysian Prime Minister) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to express my thanks to him that both our countries have been able to work together to resolve this problem, and we can now go on to develop our cooperation in many areas, such as the Iskandar Malaysia project.
"I am glad that this problem is now cleared."
There is one outstanding issue left to resolve, though.
Other than Middle Rocks, the ICJ ruled that South Ledge, an outcrop that is elevated above water only on low tide, belongs to the state whose territorial waters in which it is located. Both the waters of Pedra Branca and Middle Rocks overlap South Ledge.
According to the MFA, "the Court was not asked to determine such questions of maritime space or boundary delimitation. Singapore's rights and interests on these matters will be pursued in accordance with international law".
Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim, who was also at The Hague, told reporters that the Joint Technical Committee set up by both countries to implement the ICJ's verdict could "go through the judgment in detail and come up with suggestions".
Law academic Simon Tay said what was important now was for "the two governments need to sit down to ensure how the safety of the ships can be ensured. When that is figured out, the issue of South Ledge will not be so important".
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