Batu Putih case: Malaysia relied on Singapore documents

Most of the documents used by Malaysia to make its case on Pulau Batu Putih at the International Court of Justice were produced by Singapore.

This startling allegation was made by the republic's Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong and turns on its head the assertion by Malaysia's Foreign Ministry that its officials scoured the world for evidence to back its claim that it had ownership over the outcrop of rocks off Johor.

Chan made this revelation at the launch of the book Pedra Branca: The Road To The World Court.

He was quoted by the Straits Times as saying: “I am not sure whether the International Court of Justice realised that most of the documents used by Malaysia in her arguments against Singapore were produced by us.

“So, you can imagine our deep disappointment when it was alleged that Singapore had withheld from the court a letter which Malaysia believed would damage our case.”

He added: “The truth is that we had gone round the world looking for it for some 30 years without success.”

In the foreword of the book, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said that in 1992, he directed that Singapore hand over all its documents on the disputed area to Malaysia, “an unprecedented unilateral move”.

This move and other previously undisclosed facts about the Pedra Branca case are contained in the 190-page book on how both countries managed the dispute, which the ICJ resolved in May this year.

Pedra Branca, a football field-sized island at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Straits, was first occupied in 1847 by the British, who built Horsburgh Lighthouse there. Singapore later took over, and Malaysia staked its claim in 1979.

In May, the ICJ ruled that Pedra Branca belonged to Singapore, and that nearby Middle Rocks belonged to Malaysia.

Who owns a third maritime feature, South Ledge, is being worked out by the two countries. The ICJ says it belongs to the country in whose waters it sits.

The long journey to the ICJ resolution was highlighted by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar, who co-wrote the book with Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh.

In the book, both men noted how their involvement with the case began in 1978, when they were representing Singapore at the United Nations in Geneva. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sent them an urgent telex, asking Jayakumar to go to London to locate certain documents on the island.

Both men went on to helm the team making Singapore's case for Pedra Branca before the ICJ in The Hague in November last year, with CJ Chan, who was Attorney-General from 1992 to 2006.

The book recounts the twists and turns in the dispute and the behind-the-scenes manoeuvres taken to resolve it.

Jayakumar also noted that both sides agreed to third-party dispute settlement, now a key tenet of Singapore's foreign policy in managing disputes.

Koh said they decided to write the book to distil the lessons they had learnt from the case — Singapore's first at the ICJ — and share them with colleagues as well as the public.

Chan, in his speech, noted that Pedra Branca was “not an easy case by any standard”. The written pleadings alone of each side filled more than 2,600 pages.

“This is a case where history was part of the legal arguments, and law was part of the historical arguments,” he said.

“Ultimately, the majority of the court decided that Malaysia had history on its side, and Singapore had international law on its side, and this is expressed in the final disposition of the judgment.”