Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has strenuously denied allegations that he betrayed his country, days after a royal inquiry called for him to be investigated over his government’s 2018 decision to drop claims to two disputed islets.
Mahathir, who governed Malaysia for the second time during 2018-2020, also claimed that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) that recommended the investigation into his handling of the dispute was an attempt to “destroy” his reputation.
As Reuters reported, the RCI last week recommended that the 99-year-old former leader be investigated for the decision to withdraw Malaysia’s bid to overturn a 2008 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on the sovereignty of Pedra Branca, a small protrusion of granite claimed by Malaysia and Singapore. In its ruling, the ICJ granted Pedra Branca, which lies south of Malaysia’s Johor State, to Singapore, while granting Malaysia the nearby Middle Rocks formation.
In 2017, Malaysia filed a review to the ICJ seeking to overturn the Pedra Branca portion of the ruling and requested clarification from the court on the status of South Ledge, a third disputed feature close to Pedra Branca and Middle Rocks. However, the following year, after Mahathir’s historic victory at the general election of 2018, his government withdrew the claims – a move that has been widely criticized since.
The 238-page declassified RCI report, which was presented in parliament last week, recommended that Mahathir face “criminal investigations” of cheating for making a unilateral decision in May 2018 to abandon the two applications to the ICJ, which it said he did without informing his cabinet. The RCI cited his responsibilities as prime minister to protect and defend Malaysia’s interests and sovereignty. It also suggested that Malaysia can still make a request “at any suitable time” for interpretation of the 2008 ICJ ruling.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Mahathir defended the decision, saying that it had been made by his cabinet on the advice of legal experts. “All these people were in the cabinet meeting, if they have anything to complain or object to the decision… they could have spoken against it, but none of them said anything,” he said, as per Reuters. Mahathir has previously claimed that the withdrawal from the case was based on the advice of former Attorney-General Apandi Ali.
Mahathir went on to claim that the RCI, which was launched earlier this year after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called for a review of the dropped claims to Pedra Branca and South Ledge, was politically motivated and aimed to “neutralize” him politically.
“There must be somebody who has a special interest in my case … the whole idea is how to destroy me, call me treacherous and all that,” he told reporters. This was an apparent reference to Anwar, who said last week that the RCI had exposed the government’s failures to defend the country’s sovereignty over Pedra Branca, which Malaysia refers to as Pulau Batu Putih. Mahathir also said that if he was guilty of treason, so was Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who served as his deputy at the time.
Mahathir has said much the same thing about the corruption crackdown that he and his associates say is targeted at Anwar’s long-time opponents. This has included the late Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin, a former close associate of Mahathir during his first tenure in office during 1981-2003, as well as two of Mahathir’s sons. The fact that some of Anwar’s allies have had corruption charges dropped has fueled claims that his administration is bent on persecuting old political rivalries. Anwar has denied all these accusations, saying that he has no hand in court decisions.
Mahathir and Anwar, his one-time protégé, have a rivalry that has spanned several cycles of Malaysian political history. The pair briefly united ahead of the 2018 general election in a successful bid to overthrow the scandal-plagued administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak, but their coalition fell apart in early 2020.