Island lost because of weak team, says PAS

PAS has expressed dissatisfaction with the “weak” arguments of the Malaysian lawyers over the claim of Batu Puteh at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Its vice-president Nasharuddin Mat Isa said the weak arguments had resulted in Malaysia’s sovereignty of the island being taken over by Singapore.

“There was a lack of evidence to prop up our claims. Singapore, being awarded the island, will certainly bring a lot of hardship for our fishermen in Johor waters.

“We had a weak team of lawyers to fight our case,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby here yesterday.

PAS, he added, would be explaining this issue to its members and rakyat all over the country.

Nasharuddin said PAS Youth chief Salahuddin Ayub would attempt to table an emergency motion under 18(1) of the Parliament Standing Orders on the issue.

On another matter, Pontian MP Ahmad Maslan urged the Government to move into another island, where Singapore still maintains a lighthouse, and develop it.

This, he added was to avoid “banana trees from fruiting twice” as Singapore could move to stake a claim to Pulau Pisang, located some 5km from the coast of Pontian, Johor.

“Why should Singapore be allowed to keep the lighthouse there? Wisma Putra told me that under the present agreement, Singapore is allowed to maintain the lighthouse as long as it is still being used and for as long as there are stars and moon.

“But in this day and age, no ship uses a lighthouse and all of them now rely on global positioning system and radar to guide them. So what’s the use of the lighthouse?” he said - The Star