Caught between a rock and a hard place

malaysianinsider - [...] But I foresee the reaction to the decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will continue because many Johoreans will see this as losing to Singapore. Johoreans will never accept losing to the little red dot, which was actually a piece of big rock when we gave it away in 1965.

Just as Indonesia which had refused to accept losing Sipadan and Ligitan to little brother Malaysia at the ICJ, political arguments overcome the facts of the two cases which were decided in the international court of law

I think we have to get over losing the island and not to look at it as a loss of valuable territory. Unless there is a big reservoir of oil underneath the ocean like under Sipadan or Ligitan, which may be proven later, the loss of Batu Putih does not have practical value for Singapore other than military purposes.

Yes, it extends Singapore's international borders. But the distance between Batu Putih and its mainland does not permit Singapore to reclaim any land to create valuable real estate.

We shouldn't let blind anger cloud the facts of the case. On hindsight we should have let the case hang and not bring it to arbitration. Then we could have still used the issue against Singapore perpetually.

Or we could try to reflect on our weaknesses and correct them.

There is always a big danger in bringing cases to an international body because it means we are putting our fate in the hands of strangers. The ICJ may, in theory, be independent and free from persuasion. But, in practice, the judges are still human beings. They have made their decision using the basic argument in law that occupation is nine-tenth's possession.... selanjutnya.