Azalina: Political stability vital in preventing sovereignty-threatening cases

KOTA KINABALU: Political stability is vital in preventing more sovereignty-threatening cases in the country, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.

She stressed that what happened in the past regarding the Batu Puteh case is something that must not re-occur on islands under the State or Federal’s control.

Azalina echoed a similar sentiment on the Sulu arbitration case, opining that the country can also learn from this case to prevent more mis-steps in the future.

To this end, she warned that if the government is not stable, the country may face similar cases in the future.

“I have always said that our biggest weapon to have in the Sulu arbitration battle is a stable government.

“If the government is not stable, the Sulu incident can occur through various matters in our country.

“These people see our Prime Ministers and government keep changing and they try to disturb us.

“If we keep changing governments like changing partners, that is not about responsibility.

“So that is why the people must allow the government to finish its job before the 16th General Elections, where they can then decide the government they want.

“I will also bring up the State Immunity Act in Parliament so that we can better protect it from claims from other nations,” she told reporters after launching the “Justice on Wheels” programme at Kampung Madsiang, Penampang, here on Thursday.

To a question, she said the Royal Commission Inquiry (RCI) on the Batu Puteh case is to investigate and assess any faults in the past government’s management of the case.

Azalina said a task force was previously set up for the same goal but there were limitations in its ability to carry out further investigations, hence the RCI is a follow-up to it.

The Pengerang Member of Parliament (MP) said this is especially important as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is very concerned about the nation’s sovereignty.

“Whether we like it or not, the government made a mistake (regarding the Batu Puteh case), but we are very fair.

“We want to inquire what happened, how it happened, and where it went wrong. This is the same with the Sulu case. So we have to improve,” she said.

It was reported that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2008 had ruled that Batu Puteh belonged to Singapore.

In 2017, the country had consequently requested the ICJ an interpretation on the judgement .

A year after the interpretation request, the Tun Dr Mahathir Mobamad government withdrew an application to overturn the ICJ ruling.

As for the Sulu arbitration case, eight people who claimed to be heirs of a defunct Sulu sultanate had filed for arbitration proceedings in Spain to seek billions of US dollars from Malaysia over Sabah.

A court in Madrid, Spain had appointed Dr Gonzalo Stampa in 2019 to be the arbitrator for the case, who controversially ordered Malaysia to pay RM70.19 billion to the self-claimed heirs.

Dr Gonzalo was found guilty of contempt on court in January this year, and was sentenced by the Spanish courts to six months in prison.