 • Malaysia's turn to present case on islands today
• Keistimewaan The Hague
©The Straits Times, Singapore (Used by permission)
by Lydia Lim, Senior Political Correspondent Malaysian Foreign Minister arrives in The Hague to show support on eve of KL's 4-day oral pleading IN THE HAGUE (NETHERLANDS) - MALAYSIAN Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar arrived here last night to show support for Kuala Lumpur's legal team in the Pedra Branca hearing.Today, Malaysia launches four days of oral pleadings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
It follows Singapore's presentation, also over four days last week. On the eve of Malaysia's big day yesterday, Malaysia's Ambassador to the Netherlands, Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin, said the team's preparations were going well.
'We are very well prepared to respond to all the arguments and points made by the Singapore team,' she told The Straits Times via e-mail.
'We are confident that we have a good case. The Malaysian public can rest assured that every relevant point raised by Singapore will receive a satisfactory response from the Malaysian team,' she said.
About 60 officials from the Malaysian Foreign Ministry and Attorney-General's Chambers have been here since last week.
The Malaysian delegation is about twice as large as Singapore's, which is led by Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar.
Singapore and Malaysia have asked the ICJ to decide which has sovereignty over Pedra Branca, an island at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait.
Malaysia's first speaker today will be Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Mohamad, Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister and its Agent for the case. Each State appoints an agent to communicate with the ICJ and receive court instructions on its behalf.
As Singapore's Agent, Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh did in his opening speech last week, Tan Sri Abdul Kadir will likely lay out the broad framework of Malaysia's case.
Malaysia's Case: History to be cited to back claims ACCORDING to its written pleadings, Malaysia's claim to Pedra Branca rests on four pillars.
The first is that the Johor Sultanate exercised sovereignty over Pedra Branca from time immemorial and held what is called an 'original title' to the island.
Pedra Branca, which the Malaysians call Pulau Batu Puteh, is an island the size of a football field and is at the eastern entrance to the Singapore Strait.
To back its claim, Malaysia asserts on the basis of several history books on Johor that for centuries, the sultanate's territories stretched 'both north and south of the Singapore Strait' and included 'all islands within and at the entrance of the Singapore Strait'.
It argues that by contrast, Singapore's claim dates only to 1980 when it lodged a protest against a 1979 Malaysian map that placed Pedra Branca within Malaysia's territorial waters.
The second pillar is that Britain acknowledged Johor's title and sought permission to build a lighthouse there in the 1840s.
Malaysia has produced an 1844 letter from the Temenggong of Johor to the British Crown in Singapore, which it argues is evidence that such permission was granted.
Its third argument is that the British did not exercise sovereignty over the island, but only built and operated Horsburgh Lighthouse there. Singapore's activities, it claims, have also been limited to those related to the running of a lighthouse.
Malaysia argues that under international law, the operation of a lighthouse does not establish the sovereignty of the operator.
Lastly, Malaysia alleges that Singapore never acted as though Pedra Branca belonged to it, for it published no maps showing the island was part of its territory, nor did it include Pedra Branca in its list of islands.
From today until Friday, Malaysia's experienced team of international counsel is also expected to rebut forcefully many of the arguments that Singapore mounted last week.
The team includes Sir Elihu Lauterpacht and Mr James Crawford, two international law experts who helped Malaysia win its case in 2002 against Indonesia in their territorial dispute over the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan.
Singapore's Case : Long, non-stop display of state authority
SINGAPORE'S proof of sovereignty over Pedra Branca rests on two legs.
The first is that the British took lawful possession of the island in 1847 when it was terra nullius, a Latin phrase meaning empty or no man's land.
It backed this up with an 1850 letter by the General Secretary of the Dutch East Indies, in which he wrote of the construction of a lighthouse 'at Pedra Branca on British territory'.
In its oral pleadings last week, Singapore also highlighted Malaysia's absolute lack of documentary evidence to support its claim of an original title to Pedra Branca.
The second leg of Singapore's case is that since 1847, Britain and its successor, Singapore, have exercised sovereignty over the island through activities that were an open, continuous and effective display of state control.
These included naval patrols as well as the control of access to the island.
Among the incidents Singapore brought to the court's attention last week was one that took place in 1974, when a group of Malaysians who wanted to visit Pedra Branca sought permission to do so from the Singapore authorities.
Singapore also described as 'sudden' and 'extraordinary' Malaysia's late claim to the island, through a map published in 1979.
The move, it said, came after 130 years of silence in the face of Singapore's exercise of state control on and in the waters around Pedra Branca.
During those 130 years, Malaysia had also acknowledged Singapore's sovereignty, it added.
Its legal team quoted from a 1953 letter in which Johor's top official at the time informed the British authorities in Singapore that 'the Johore Government does not claim ownership of Pedra Branca'.
They also highlighted six maps published by the Malaysian government between 1962 and 1975, which showed Pedra Branca as belonging to Singapore.
Why Singapore is fighting the case to keep Pedra Branca
by Lydia Lim IN 1583, Dutch voyager Johann van Lindschoten wrote of the island on which South-east Asia's first lighthouse was eventually built:
'From the Cape of Singapore lyeth a cliffe in ye sea called Pedra Branca, or white rock, where the shippes that come and goe to and from China passe in great danger and some are left upon it.'
It is clear from this account that for centuries, Pedra Branca was notorious for being a navigational hazard.
It was for this reason that the British decided in 1847 to build Horsburgh Lighthouse there, to improve the safety of ships passing through the Singapore Strait.
Since the construction of the lighthouse began that year, the British colonial authorities had considered Pedra Branca part of Singapore territory.
When it became self-governing in 1959, Singapore assumed sovereignty over the island from the British and has controlled it and its surrounding waters ever since.
So it found Malaysia's sudden claim in 1979 that Pedra Branca stood within its territorial waters, 'to say the least, extraordinary'.
That was the phrase Deputy Prime Minister S Jayakumar used in a speech last Friday, as he wrapped up Singapore's first round of oral pleadings before the International Court of Justice.
To some, Pedra Branca may seem insignificant.
It is after all but a guano-covered granite island the size of a football field, located some 25 nautical miles from Singapore's mainland.
But for the Singapore Government, there is an important principle at stake, which is that no country should be able to suddenly and unilaterally claim its territory over which it has exercised sovereignty openly and continuously. In this case, Singapore has held the island for some 150 years.
In a way, Singapore is acting as any home owner would if his neighbour suddenly decided to encroach on his land.
It would come as no surprise if the owner strenuously resisted any such attempt, for otherwise, he would forfeit to his neighbour land that was rightfully his to begin with.
To be sure, sovereignty disputes are also usually tied up with feelings of national pride.
Malaysian newspaper the New Straits Times stated in an article dated Jan 2, 2003 that 'Pulau Batu Puteh, tiny as it is, is significant for its strategic position, impact on the delimitation of territorial sea and, most of all, for national pride'.
Pedra Branca is also strategically located and is key to the safety of international shipping passing through the Strait of Singapore.
It commands the entrance to the two main shipping channels - the south and middle channels - of the eastern part of the strait, through which some 900 ships pass each day.
Singapore has installed a VTIS or Vessel Traffic Information System tower on Pedra Branca, which it relies on in its management of shipping traffic.
While Singapore is confident of the outcome of the dispute now being heard before the International Court of Justice, it will no doubt be watching keenly for surprises that the Malaysian side might spring on it this week.
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