Lawyer claims govt task force to investigate Pulau Batu Puteh case a means to blame Dr Mahathir 😁😂😀😅👍
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad speaks during a press conference in Langkawi September 18, 2021. — Bernama pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 — Lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali today alleged that the setting up of a special task force to scrutinise and recommend necessary options on the Pulau Batu Puteh case was merely to place the blame on former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 — Lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali today alleged that the setting up of a special task force to scrutinise and recommend necessary options on the Pulau Batu Puteh case was merely to place the blame on former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Straits Times (Sing):
Malaysian lawyers to take action against WhatsApp culprit who alleged they hired thugs behind temple row
Lawyers Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla and Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali will take legal action against the culprit who created the WhatsApp message alleging their involvement in hiring thugs, leading to the riots at the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Petaling Jaya.
"We will lodge a complaint with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to get to the source of the WhatsApp message and take legal action against the culprit," Mr Haniff said in a press conference at his law firm on Thursday (Nov 29).
"We will also lodge a police report soon... within this week."
Mr Haniff said that they will also lodge a complaint and police report on another Facebook post published by Raja Petra Kamaruddin on Nov 28 at 12.28am.
The blogger's post includes a photo of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Mr Haniff, with wordings, "Misteri Nusantara", "One City Owners and Teresa Kok are close relatives", "Tun and attackers share the same lawyer".
Mr Haniff said all of these are fake and malicious allegations.
"I am a private lawyer for Dr Mahathir. But this doesn't mean that I cannot manage other cases," he added.
Pictures of both of them with captions claiming that they were the lawyers responsible for hiring the thugs had gone viral on social messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.
Mr Haniff is representing two of the detained One City staff members while Mr Rafique is representing another.
Malay daily Utusan Malaysia quoted Muhammad Rafique as saying that the appointment of former attorney general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali as the head of the special task force suggests a conflict of interest that violates the principle of law.
“In fact, the existence of this special team reflects the government’s seeming disrespect of the judiciary following a lawsuit by one party who was dissatisfied with the decision to withdraw the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment.
“Therefore, the appointment of Mohamed Apandi should be withdrawn or he himself should resign because his position violates the public interest due to the purpose of establishing this team in order to safeguard the country’s sovereignty,” he reportedly said.
Previously, Mohamed Apandi claimed to have solid evidence, facts and foundations that Pulau Batu Puteh belonged to Malaysia and he was disappointed when the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government led by Dr. Mahathir decided to withdraw the review and interpretation of the judgment on the island in 2018.
On October 9, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the Cabinet had agreed to set up a special task force led by Mohamed Apandi which would seek the views of international legal experts about a request to review the ICJ decision.
Ismail said the Cabinet had also decided to obtain preliminary legal views about any negligence in the decision to discontinue the review and interpretation of the ICJ judgement.
Mohamad Apandi was once reported to have said that Malaysia had missed the opportunity to regain Pulau Batu Puteh after Dr Mahathir decided to withdraw the review and interpretation of the judgment on the island’s sovereignty case as well as Batuan Tengah and Tubir Selatan.
The former attorney general said Dr Mahathir made the decision a few days before the case was scheduled to be heard at the ICJ on June 11, 2018.
This is a confusing article.
ReplyDeleteWhy is the Pedra Branca (let's be honest and call it by its correct name since it belongs to Singapore) case juxtaposed with the Sri Maha Mariamman temple story?
Get the basics right.
ReplyDeleteThe principal reason Pulau Batu Puteh was lost and remains lost is the incompetent Malaysian case presentation in the ICJ 2003-2004 case.
Included in the case file was a doctored photograph that attempted to show Pulau Batu Putih is much nearer to the Johor coastline than it actually is. The ICJ judges were most unimpressed with Malaysia trying to mislead the Court.
Combined with 120 years negligence, complacency and apathy among Malaya /Malaysia government administrators the lack of Malaya/Malaysia Asserting rights over the island.
Mahathir is guilty of that in his 22 years out of the 120 years, I suppose.
Maybe not appealing the ICJ judgement was a bad decision.
Maybe not appealing was a good decision not to throw good money and resources after a weak situation.
What is definitely NOT right is to appoint Apandi to chair the Task Force where he had already previously prejudged his position.
No man may sit in judgement of his own case.
As I wrote before, that principle was already written in the Code of Hammurabi, 3800 years ago in Babylon.