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.