Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his government were “completely irresponsible” for blaming others over the confusion and the ultimate decision to withdraw from both the Rome Statute and Icerd, student activist Asheeq Ali Sethi Alivi said.

Asheeq (photo above) said this included Mahathir’s statement in which he pointed a finger at a particular person "who wants to be free to beat up people” and certain royals over the confusion which saw Putrajaya’s decision to pull back from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Don't just raise the white flag and say other people want to beat up people and that's why we had to withdraw. I think that's completely irresponsible of the prime minister to have said that in the very first place.

“The confusion must be addressed,” Asheeq said during a public forum organised by a group of student activists at Universiti Malaya.

He was referring to Mahathir's statements immediately after he announced Pakatan Harapan government’s withdrawal from the statute.

The premier said the decision was made due to the confusion created by a particular person "who wants to be free to beat up people and things like that".

He also claimed there were attempts by certain quarters, including members of a royal family, to pit the rulers against the government.

Asheeq also took the Harapan government to task over the blame being cast on the four academics who co-authored a paper which purportedly convinced the Conference of Rulers to reject the statute.

Asheeq is one of a group of student activists who leaked an executive summary of the paper by the four academics earlier this month.

According to the leaked paper, it was presented on April 2 by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) law professor Rahmat Mohamad, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) law professor Shamrahayu Abdul Aziz and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (Usim) law lecturers Fareed Mohd Hassan and Hisham Hanapi.

Labelling the paper as “biased”, the students had said they were releasing the document so as to start a discussion over the merits of the Rome Statute.

“You should be accountable. Don’t just blame the four professors.

“We released the paper so you can debate it.

“[...] People want to know. Do not just slide it off,” Asheeq said.

Unity at stake

He urged the government to deal with such issues carefully as they are placing the country’s unity at stake.

“In one year since May 9, 2018 people are now so much divided and I solely blame the government for mishandling issues like Icerd... I don't know what the Unity Minister (P Waythamoorthy) is doing.

“You guys can blame the professors, you guys can blame whomever you want to blame, but bear in mind you have the responsibility to make sure the country remains in peace.”

However, there have been no reports of the government directly blaming the academics. The Education Ministry has also denied claims it was discussing the status of the four academics.

The academics were initially invited by the student group to attend today's forum but they did not attend.

The kerfuffle over the Rome Statute followed the initial controversy over Harapan’s decision to ratify Icerd - the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination - late last year.

It became a sticking point with the opposition and other quarters who claimed that to accept Icerd would affect the Federal Constitution, namely the rights of the bumiputera.

Eventually, like the Rome Statute, the government chose not to accept the convention.

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