The ICJ has declared by a 15-1 majority to award Malaysia the territories of Middle Rock and Southern Ledge.
As a consolation, Malaysia has impliedly consented and agreed to the decision of the ICJ to grant Singapore the other parts of Pedra Branca by a 12-4 majority.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim described the judgment as a "win-win" situation. He said the status quo remained although Singapore has sovereignty over Pulau Batu Puteh and Malaysia over Middle Rocks. (Source: S'pore takes Pulau Batu Puteh, M'sia gets Middle Rocks)
This is the land we had won ....
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Not bad; quite a large piece for us!
At the least, this picture is big!
And we got 2 pieces:
Middle Rock & Southern Ledge!
Actually, there's one more piece that had yet to be awarded to us; and our Minister is confident that we will win the last piece.
(Photo showing South Ledge at low tide which was [to be] awarded [will be awarded according to Rais' confidence] to Malaysia)
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This is the only piece given to Singapore.
Singapore only won a small piece;
and that piece had only a small structure;
no hotel, no shopping complex and no Twin Tower like KLCC and KLIA; not like our Putrajaya and our PM's residence;
Theirs is not that big piece ...after all!
Two is surely more than one!Positive thinking! Positive belief!
Positive writing! Constructive and motivating journalism!
Positive Message! Malaysian values!
33 comments:
Nice humourous commentary!
The next question is - now that Singapore has won the main island, what can be built on it?
I suggest some ideas here:
http://www.wahpiangeh.com/pedra-branca.html
Maverick
The area is originally belongs to Malaysia, WTF should we give it to Singapore????
Well, it is like this, say we have two daughters we raised since babies in stomach, suddenly a couple came to court and claim one of our babies as theirs; then we gave them that baby.
First question; are we Dumb and Daft not to think rationally in forming strong Attorney General Team?
Final question; are our AG Team reports to a Retarded Superior?
If we answered "YES" then we should be happy that we got such result.
No... we cant blame the AG Team, but only the Retarded Superior.
Yes. Oh Yes; your guess is as good as mine on who is that RETARDED SUPERIOR is!
haha...u funi man.
If we had an equally capable team, could the result be different? Guess we'll never know anywmore.
hey, at least we got 2 land ... not bad at all.... our minister oledi said win-win, so the case's close.
Wah Piang Eh,
You got great ideas. I've read your posting.
Oris,
Not only the area originally belongs to Malaysia, Singapore also originally belongs to Malaysia and Malaya originally belongs to the originators.
Hasilox,
I am certain the result would have been different if only .... but too late!!!
juz wait n see...there will be skycrappppppppers next to the 2 batu...soon...very soon...
Lets reserve Middle Rock and South Ledge for Mahathir and Pat Lah as their resting abode.
cheers.
Malaysia did not win both Middle Rocks and South ledge. What it did win was the former. For the latter, it wasn't within the terms of reference for the ICJ to determine who it belonged to since that depends on the delineation of the territorial waters (something the ICJ was not asked to determine). Further Malaysia had a very strong team. James Crawford was (before this judgment) undefeated in the ICJ.
We did not lose it, Singapore did not win it.....WE GAVE IT AWAY..... And of course our dream team of lawyers too..they made the job easier for the judges to decide.
AND BEST PART..Rais Yatim said win-win. Honourable Minister..what did we win?
be optimistic, look at what the Chinese built on the Spratly Islands, the two rocks can sprout, wonders,..... its what u believe and not what u see,....
;)
Middle Rock & Southern Ledge are just a couple of centimeters above sea level. With global warming, both will be non-existent by 2009. What a victory!
Size does not matter, it is how one uses it. In a way, both sides now have share in that gateway to the South China Sea.
Hopefully the ICJ decision means more cooperation rather than conflict from both sides.
Syabash Malaysia! I will now raise capital to build a golf course (3 holes only type) and a condum on it. Who will invest? Why, it has to be Petronas...plently of money, always spending on any hairbrained idea but only if the 'right' UMNOputera is involved. Hmm, who will that be? Any ideas? No? I will go to the MIC and its chief, Samy Tak Value. He is sure to have some ideas. After all he was in charge of tolls until those ungrateful wretches in Sungai Siput threw him out. I also have half a cow for sale...good for milking.
bila pulau batu putih dapat kat singpore, its means kita dah bagi terus negara kita kat depa. lepas ni langkah singapore lebih laju. tak payah tunggu 5-10 tahu, tahun depan pon depa dah boleh ambil johor
WON TWO BALLS BUT LOST THE DICKY
Hahahaha...funny guy!
Rais Yatim must be damn proud! We have lost Pulau Batu Puteh and only won two pebbles! Rais, Win-win situation my ass! You, KJ and Pak Lah can now go and build a tombstone ontop of those 2 pebbles!
YAHOO!!! Can go fishing!! 2 free kelongs! NOT SO BAD what!!
I think maybe our legal team got get paid too little, so cannot win? Or do the results of this dream legal tean tell us anything about our education system???
Maybe we awreddy got big big things and big big land..give the beggars something ?
As it is,Singapore is reclaiming so much land, maybe part of their strategy is to reclaim land linking mainland to lighthouse?
They CAN too, you know.
They are quite smart burgers and some more the govt "servants" in Singaland gets paid MORE (if not, as much as) Private sector.
At least in singaland they actually believe in hiring and paying for the best brains.(except for their #1 leader..that one like family biz lah)
Here in lalaland, we dun believe in paying for the best, so their excuse is they can steal, steal, steal.
+ve thinking, Ilike it!
Ten years down the line, OIL fields are found adjacent to Little Rocks and BIG Rocks, none at Ulau Batu Hitam...So, who says Malaysians tak boleh,ole'! Ole'! -- Desi
We were no match for Sin's lawyers. Knew all along we would eventually lose. We better hold on tight to whatever assets we still have cos we may lose them in time.
why's rais yatim to give comment, and why he's in the hague and not syed akbar. the latter was foreign minister when this matter was brought to the icj in yr 2004++. in singapura side, we see that jayakumar who was foreign sparring with akbar, but we din see george yeo in the hague who is the current foreign minister. and why's yatim to give comment, pity this minister....
hmm.. i see nobody got it right here, except for 'void deck'. the question is not what can be built on a tiny island, the more important is that now you have control of the sea waterways around the island, and that's more important. i am not sure what is the area like, but expect it to be significant.
i am not sure about malaysia, but singapore didn't fight for this tiny island for nothing. it is for strategic reasons.
you cannot compare who got a bigger rock or who has the most rock. you got to see where the tiny rock is located to see who really won, and which area of the sea that is designated to belong to it. now that singapore won a part, singapore can claim that the waters around it belongs to singapore.
Sani,
I have high hope of it too.
ali allah ditta,
Good idea.
Artchan,
You are right. We won 2 island.
Jefus,
Ya, we must be optimistic.
Size actually didn't matter; but the oil and gas below matter.
D Dollah
Rais was a happy man with that decision.
Gobloking,
Ya, I want to go fishing too.
Denzook,
We give chance to Singapore mah.
New Cabinet:
Prime Minister - Anwar
Deputy Prime Minister - Lim Kit Siang
Culture Minister - Farish Noor
Defence Minister -
Education Minister - Nga Kor Ming
Environment Minister - Teresa Kok
Finance Minister - Tony Pua
Foreign Minister - Ramasamy
Health Minister - Tan Seng Giaw
Home Minister -
Information Minister - Jeff Ooi
Law Minister - Teng Chang Khim
Manpower Minister -
Sports Minister -
Technology Minister -
Trade Minister - Khalid
Transport Minister - Liew Chin Tong
(Penang Chief Minister - Lim Guan Eng)
The most important asset of a country is not its natural resources, but rather its human resources. This is especially true in a knowledge-based economy, which, of course, will be the trend in the future if not already the trend in most of the western countries.
My daughter, who is in her final year medicine in Auckland, told me that a team of Singapore recruitment officers have just visited Auckland and talked to the Malaysian students there, offering jobs and training prospects for the final year students once they graduate.
My daughter also told me that over the last few years, quite a lot of her Malaysian seniors, after graduating from medical courses in New Zealand, have gone to Singapore to work as house-officers and subsequently stayed back in Singapore for their postgraduate training. Similar teams are sent to UK and Australia for recruiting Malaysians there to work in Singapore.
About a year ago, Reuters reported: 'Malaysia is counting on bright, ambitious people like Tan Chye Ling for its future, to lead it away from manufacturing and into the knowledge age.'
But the 32-year-old scientist, a post-graduate in molecular biology, is not counting on Malaysia to look after her future.
'I felt very suppressed in Malaysia,' said Tan, who moved to neighbouring Singapore, the region's pacesetter for biotech investment, after a decade of study and research in Malaysia.
'I have benefited from the better research environment and salary scheme here. Things are much smoother,' she said by phone from the National University of Singapore where she is studying dust mites and allergies. Tan estimates that 60 percent of the research teams she works with in Singapore are from Malaysia, despite her country's efforts over several years to develop a biotech industry.
There is a serious problem facing Malaysia and that is the problem of 'brain drain'. Why are Malaysians overseas not coming back to work? Well, pay may be part of the reasons but it is not the main reason. Singapore recruitment teams offer Malaysian medical students a salary which is a few times what they would expect to get in Malaysia S$40000 a year for houseman after tax (equivalent to RM86000) which is about five times the pay of a houseman in Malaysia.
But, as I say, pay is not the main problem. The living expense overseas is high. And for a person working overseas, the loneliness and the stress level is also high. So not everyone opts to work overseas because of the pay. Many would not mind to work for a lesser pay if they can stay near to their loved ones. So why do people choose to work overseas, away from their loved ones?
Malaysia has many state-of-the-arts hospitals and research centres, which may even be the envy of many overseas countries. But hardware alone would not attract these experts to come home. In the medical field, I have so many friends/classmates working overseas, many in world-renowned centres. Why do they do that? Some of my classmates and friends did come back as specialists. After working a few years (many only lasted a few months), most got disillusioned and went off again.
There is really not much prospect of career advancement here. How many can hope to become a professor even when they are an acknowledged expert in their field? On the other hands, lesser beings are being promoted to professorship for doing much less. How many of them can have a say about how things are to be run? How many of them can blend into the local team where the work attitude is vastly different from that overseas?
There is an unwritten rule that even if the person is very good, the head of the team has to be someone from a certain ethnic group who may not be even half as good as him. In everyday life, some become disillusioned with the corruption, the red tape and the 'tidak apa' attitude of officialdom. For an overseas doctor applying to work back home, the application can take up to six months to get approved, whereas Singapore sends teams overseas to recruit them on the spot and offering them jobs immediately as long as they pass their final examinations. See the difference?
It is the sense of being wanted and being appreciated that make these people stay overseas. Back here, they are often made to feel that they are of a lower class. They do not feel wanted and they do not feel appreciated. That is the main reason.
For those with children, the education system further puts them off. Even school children can feel being discriminated against and one glaring example is the two system pre-university education.
All these make them pack their bags and off they go again, leaving behind their parents, perhaps their siblings, the friends they grew up together with and their favourite food that is often not available overseas. No one likes to be away from home but circumstances and a sense of being recognised for their worth make them go away. It is really sad.
Parents spend big sums of money on educating their children but the ones who benefit most are the Singaporeans, the British, the Australians, the Americans and so on. As long as race politics is not done away with, this problem of 'brain drain' will continue and Malaysia will always trail behind the advanced countries no matter how many Twin Towers and Putrajaya we build.
True enough, Article 153 of the 1957 Federal Constitution does provide for the special position of malays, natives of Sabah and Sarawak, and other marginalised groups.
However, what this special position means is open for debate.
Some believe it merely meant socio-economic position, one that changes dynamically and hence can be renegotiated.
Further, pre-independence documents - the Cobbold Commission Report, Federation of Malaya Constitutional Proposals and the Reid Commission Report - reveal that this position was meant to be temporary.
The "special right" of malays was therefore understood not as a God-given mark, but recognition of socio-economic status until such a time this could be elevated.
I really wonder whether the Malaysian government did a proper study before deciding to go for the ICJ opinion. It looked to me like a weak case to start with, and we got humiliated in the end.
We could easily have gone for the 3rd Option - keep it as an unresolved, but minor issue, let Singapore continue to operate the lighthouse (nothing has changed, right ?), let them mantain their silly permanent naval patrol round and round the island, but we continue to reserve our claim over the islands, and protest loudly any attempt by Singapore to exercise any other sovereign rights over the surrounding waters.
Sometimes, its better to leave a legal issue unsettled, especially when you have a weak hand.
Yuking,
You must be dreaming ... or too excited over Pakatan.
Hon,
Great story but irrelevant at this piece of article. Wish your daughter well and have a great vocation down south.
Kok,
Great information but totally irrelevant to this article posted. Wait for an article which I will write pertaining to append your view on Article 153.
Kittykat46,
I do not agree; our govt was extremely optimistic that we will win. They did win some.
Actually you should not keliru the others.. We doesnt win the land on the 1st picture u post. That picture shows the south ledge..
Then the 2nd picture, u should enlarge it. BOTH OF THEM we called it Middles Rock.
I think u r just a bad bloggers just like the tons others outside that are posting craps without facts. Pls put the right thing so that people will not be given such a rubbish information. but i do agree with u in some thing. We own the maritim...
Fadz,
Ya, I am a bad blogger; keliru orang. But this is a blog, not your daily newspaper. There are tons others outside and also tons of newspaper which you can read this piece of news.
We own the maritime? hahaha...what a joke.
najib today made another silly announcement:
"Fishermen should stay away from Middle Rocks for the next few weeks"
why should these malaysians stay away from our sovereign area. it should be other way round - fisherman can continue their activity until further announcement - najib's announcement implied that singaporean are more superior that they can continue appear in that area, shooing fisherman away ? how can najib be so low and coward, as minister of defence somemore. ....... shame on him!
of course malaysia/singapura should be given grace period before new guidelines is drafted for this new ruling..
Denzook,
Najib has good reason; just only a few weeks. It's nothing to do with Singapore; it's to clear up the bobbies that trap.
Many thanks for your nice posting , I like it.
Bathmate
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