Minister: RI ready to accept decision on Sipadan-Ligitan

Minister: RI ready to accept decision on Sipadan-Ligitan

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said Indonesia was preparing for
the worst when the International Court of Justice makes its
decision on the disputed islands of Sipadan and Ligitan on the
border with Malaysia and East Kalimantan.

The Court is to issue its verdict on the islets on Dec. 17.

"We are not pessimistic, but a 50 percent chance of winning
the case is a conservative prediction ... Indonesia is ready to
accept the decision, whatever it is," Hassan said here on
Wednesday.

The two islands have been the subject of a dispute between the
two countries since 1969, when Malaysia and Indonesia were
striving to determine their territorial limits.

In the past four years, the dispute was submitted to the court
in The Hague, but due to a lack of clarity in the evidence
presented by the two countries, it has been difficult to make a
prediction of the possible outcome.

The Dec. 17 verdict will be final and binding, and the UN
Security Council had full authority to implement it, should
either Indonesia or Malaysia refuse to comply.

Anticipating the worst, Hassan has informed several local
groupings about ongoing progress and said that the government was
trying to avoid further political rifts at home should Indonesia
lose the two islands.

Losing the case could be a big blow to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, especially as the country is still traumatized by the
separation of East Timor from Indonesia in 1999.

Should Malaysia win the case, this could raise negative
sentiment towards Kuala Lumpur, as happened when Malaysia
deported Indonesians who worked illegally in that country.

"We are trying to avoid a misperception that the current
administration has failed to retain the islands. This is an old
problem, the legacy from previous administrations," the minister
remarked.

"Once, former president Soeharto said that he would like to
end the dispute during his tenure, but it proved to be impossible
and the current administration must deal with the result," he
stressed.

Both Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to take the case to the
court in an attempt to avoid friction between the two neighboring
countries.

Hassan further cited that there were currently four possible
outcomes: a decision totally in favor of Malaysia or of
Indonesia, shared ownership or both countries owning one island.

Hassan underlined that the government had made maximum efforts
to win the dispute as it was a matter of Indonesia's sovereignty,
but it had been difficult due to insufficient legal evidence of
the islands' ownership.

"Indonesia may have been wrong since the beginning, when it
excluded the two islands in the first mapping done in 1960, but
so was Malaysia," the minister remarked.

To assist Indonesia during the hearing, Jakarta hired four
reputable lawyers from France, the Netherlands, Britain and the
U.S., which cost the country some Rp 16 billion (US$1.7 million)
for their three years of service.