This infomation from Wikipedia: The Malaysian state of Johor
asserts that when Johor Sultanate ceded Singapore to the British in
1824, the island was not part of the secession and that the Sultan
of Johor only allowed the British to construct a lighthouse on the
island in 1844.[10] This follows a letter dated November 25 1844
from the Sultan and the Temenggung of Johor to the British which
gave the British a permission to build a lighthouse on an
island.[11] In 1824, Sultan of Johor ceded Singapore and the
surrounding 10 nmi (18.5 km) to the British East India Company.[12]
Pedra Branca is located 25 nmi (46.3 km) away from Singapore; the
island is 7.7 nmi (14.3 km) away from Johor.[13]
1. johor never claimed the island of pedra branca in its
hundreds of years of history... so you cannot say that island
belong to them since time immemorial...
just because its near your house... doesnt make it belong to
you. the same points applies to falkland being next to argentina
but belong to british... like wise the french micronesia which is
in the pacific ocean half way around the globe but belong to
france.
2. the treaty on cessation of singapore and the surrounding 10
nmi, only relates to singapore... it does not infer or imply that
pedra branca must then belong to johor... the treaty never said
that... nor did it imply that the british accept johor
ownership of pedra branca.
the same argument was presented in the ligitan and sipadan
argument... indonesia has a legal treaty which was signed by the
anglo-dutch power, which stated that the border between the two
powers is based on a straight latitude line cutting across an
island next to kalimantan.
the indonesian takes that as implying that all the water and
island(including ligitan and sipadan) below that latitude line
cutting across the island and all the way east as indonesians.
however, the court totally disagreed... and stated that the
treaty only relates to the island and nothing more should be
implied by the treaty to assume that all the water and island south
of the latitude line beyond the island mentioned must belong to
indonesia.
with regard to the letter of permission to build the
lighthouse... singapore has already proven to the court.. that the
island mentioned was not pedra branca but peak rock which is a
about 1 mile from johor mainland... through the various
correspondence between governor butterworth and the johor
sultan.
furthermore.. malaysia was not able to produce the letter...
which would mean it would carry little or no weight since no
letter... how you know with absolute clarity and certainty its
refering to wat? maybe it could be refering to a ship or a women
call pedra branca.... it might even be a letter from the sultan to
cede johor to the british.
malaysia claimed that singapore has hidden the letter, which
singapore denies base on 2 fact.
1. the letter was addressed to the johor sultan... why would the
letter be in singapore?
2. complete singapore archieves were copied to various
universities around the world including melbourn university well
before the dispute arise over pedra branca... in the form of
microfilms... all these microfilms and copies attested to the
singapore point that such letter was not in singapore's
possesion.
malaysia's final day rebuttal however.. claimed that singapore
have the letter because the sultan and the temengong was staying in
singapore at that time.
but honestly... its a weak counter... afterall, would malaysia
file top secret files in singapore archieves because their prime
minister happen to recieve the files while in singapore?
