Pedra Branca : The White Rock Island

Last May, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down Pulau Batu Putih (White Rock Island, better known as Pedra Branca) to the Republic of Singapore in a legal tussle between Malaysia and the republic over the ownership of the rocky outcrop which stations a lighthouse to guide ships plying the Johore Straits. The decision was greeted with great consternation by the Malaysian people because it was historically ours and located in our own waters. The island of Singapore itself was in fact a part of the Malay Peninsula before crafty Stamford Raffles leased it from the reigning Sultan of Johore then.

It was a great boo-boo on the part of our legal team in the Hague led by Abd Ghani Patail, the controversial Attorney General. The decision is now a subject of an appeal by the Malaysian Government to the ICJ for its reversal.
It is an open secret that Singapore retains Israelis as their security advisers. Now that Singapore stakes a claim over waters around Pedra Branca that covers a 12-mile territorial sea and a 200- mile Exclusive Economic Zone. This move is no big surprise to me as it is characteristically very Jewish in manner. I see this recent move by Singapore as arrogant, belligerent and superfluous against her friendly neighbour after wresting the rocky outcrop away from Malaysia.
It vividly reminds me of the current military stand-off on the border between Thailand and Cambodia over ICJ's decision to award a religious site to Cambodia which historically belongs to Thailand. Will Malaysia resort to a similar action against Singapore ? I very much doubt it as our Government simply has no guts nor balls to stand up to the unfair ruling of the ICJ.