Mahathir appeals to open Batu Puteh RCI to public

Dr Mahathir Mohamad has turned to the Court of Appeal to open public access to the closed-door Batu Puteh Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI).

The former prime minister is also seeking an appellate court order to remove former chief justice Md Raus Sharif from chairing the RCI over alleged bias.

Mahathir’s counsel Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali confirmed the notice of appeal was filed yesterday regarding the former premier’s judicial review.

The RCI is looking into Malaysia’s 2018 withdrawal of its appeal over the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision to award Batu Puteh’s sovereignty to Singapore.

The 2008 ICJ ruling awarded sovereignty over Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore, Middle Rocks to Malaysia, and South Ledge to “the state in the territorial waters of which it is located”.

‘Past animosity’

In Mahathir’s affidavit in support of his judicial review, he claimed there was past animosity between him and Raus.

This is because, in 2017, Mahathir filed a court challenge against Raus’ appointment as an additional Federal Court judge past his retirement age.

After Mahathir became prime minister again, Raus purportedly met him in May 2018 to express his intention to resign as chief justice and then tendered his resignation a month later.

Mahathir claimed that the other two RCI members he sought to recuse - Baljit Singh Sidhu and Mohammed Ridha Abd Kadir - were biased as they were part of a previous task force over the issue during his second tenure as prime minister between 2018 and 2020.

In 2022, then-prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob revealed the findings of the task force report that Mahathir was possibly negligent by failing to file an appeal against the ICJ’s decision.

The previous task force was also chaired by former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali, who has an alleged “bitter history” with Mahathir.

On June 12, the Kuala Lumpur High Court only granted leave for Mahathir to proceed with a portion of the judicial review, namely for his lawyers to be present during the closed-door RCI.

Mahathir’s appeal seeks to get leave to commence with the remainder of the legal action, namely to open the RCI to the public and to challenge Raus’ appointment as its chairperson.

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