The ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Pulau Batu Puteh reveals that Malaysia was “lackadaisical” in exercising sovereign rights over the island.

chandra just Dr Chandra Muzaffar, president of the International Movement of Just World (Just), said “there is no doubt at all that Malaysia should have been more vigilant”.

In a statement, he pointed out that it is significant that the ICJ had acknowledged the Johor sultanate’s sovereignty over the island since time immemorial.

“But (it) observed (that) after 1844, when the British colonial administration built a lighthouse on the island, the sultanate through various acts of commission and omission did not appear to assert its ownership,” he said.

“The culmination was the written reply from the Acting State Secretary of Johor in September 1953 to a query from the colonial authority in Singapore about the status of Batu Puteh in which the former had stated ‘Johor has no claim of ownership over Batu Puteh’.”

Perhaps more telling, he said, is that after Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965, neither Johor nor Malaysia sought to raise any question about the status of Batu Puteh with Singapore’s leaders.

“Given that the separation itself had diminished the sovereign status of the Malaysian Federation, one would have thought that the Malaysian government would have kept a close eye on other related issues of territorial jurisdiction,” Chandra noted.

pulau batu putih icj malaysia singapore 140508 “In the meantime, Singapore acted as if it was the legal owner of the island, undertaking a variety of activities that went beyond mere management of the British-built lighthouse, without any objections from Johor or Malaysia.”

Singapore’s actions showed that it possessed sovereign rights over Batu Puteh, which it calls Pedra Branca.

Last Friday, the ICJ awarded ownership of the island to Singapore, ending a 28-year old territorial dispute with Malaysia.

Malaysia claimed original title to Pulau Batu Puteh, while Singapore argued that sovereignty had passed to it tacitly as it has operated the Horsburgh Lighthouse for more than 130 years without any protest from its neighbour.

However, the ICJ has awarded the adjacent Middle Rocks to Malaysia, while instructing that jurisdiction over another rocky outcrop known as South Ledge, be settled between the two countries.