PUTRAJAYA: A former Pakatan Harapan minister has confirmed that the withdrawal of the appeal over the decision by the International Court of Justice to hand Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore was brought up in a cabinet meeting in 2018.
However, Datuk Dr A. Xavier Jayakumar said not a single minister had asked any questioned when the cabinet paper was tabled then.
Xavier, who was the water, land and natural resources minister at the time under the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad administration, said the cabinet paper included views and advice from experts regarding the ICJ decision.
"I acknowledge that at that time there was a cabinet paper, followed by the decision made based on the cabinet paper, along with the expert advice given to the cabinet at that time and the court's (ICJ's) decision.
"(However), there was no one (among the cabinet members) who raised any questions or anything like that," he told Berita Harian.
On Tuesday, Dr Mahathir had again denied that the decision to withdraw the appeal against the ICJ decision to hand Batu Puteh to Singapore was a unilateral one.
He claimed that the decision was jointly reached by the cabinet at the time.
Asked whether there were any objections to the plan to withdraw the appeal, Xavier said he could not rightly remember as it was a long time ago.
"I don't really remember... it was a long time ago and I don't have the cabinet paper in my possession," he said.
Meanwhile, then Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Seri Dr Mujahid Yusof, when contacted, declined to say anything.
"No comment," was all he would say.
Earlier, former housing and local government minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin had confirmed that the decision to withdraw the appeal had been brought before the cabinet.