Malaysia unusually meek over Spratly islands, Luconia Shoals’ territorial issues and activities
What do sovereign countries do or how will they react when their boundaries are breached.
Well, the least they will do is to scream to defend their country, no?
Has anyone noticed how quiet Malaysia has been with China’s current activities in the South China Sea (SCS), especially over the Spratly islands.
However, Malaysia has been screaming out how well Malaysia’s economy is progressing, with billions of ringgit in investments flowing from China, including those 1Malaysia Development (1MDB) assets sold.
It is not the first time Malaysian assets are being sold to foreigners without a whimper from the government or Malaysians in general, probably due to ignorance and lack of public understanding of the significance and importance of such sales.
Remember how:
> Former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had signed off US$100 billion (RM400 billion) worth of oil rights to resolve Brunei’s claims to Limbang a month before he stepped down as Prime Minister in March 2009, This was disclosed by none other than former premier of 22 years, Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his blog entry titled “Malaysia’s Generosity” with Malaysia losing a substantial oil producing offshore area in the South China Sea, namely Block L and Block M, just for Limbang; and
> Malaysia lost embarrassingly in the International Court Of Justice to Singapore over the Pedra Branca/Batu Puteh claim.
And now, like Pedra Branca/Batu Puteh, Malaysia seems to be meekly quiet with the removal of the Malaysian flag on the Luconia Shoals.
One would have thought Malaysia would have learnt a bitter lesson over the loss of Pedra Branca/Batu Puteh to Singaporean, but alas it is not to be.
It has been written that one would expect that the Government Of Malaysia would exercise and strenuously defend its right to fly the flag on all its possessions, but this was obviously not the case with Luconia Shoals. It is hard to see that by removing its own flag, Malaysia has not surrendered its right to the Shoals.
In fact, it does seem as if China has already assumed control of the shoals:
(Hans Berekoven, an Australian marine archaeologist) chose Malaysia’s Independence Day, August 31 Merdeka 2015, to protest against the situation by raising the Malaysian flag on the tiny island.
It is the first time the video of the incident has been released.
“I took the curator of the museum that we’re working with, and a couple of other Malaysian friends, and a journalist from the Borneo Post,” he said.
They mounted a stainless steel flagpole into a cement footing and raised the Malaysian flag, as the China Coast Guard vessel watched from about 500m offshore.
“They must have got on the blower to Beijing and Beijing must have got on the blower to Kuala Lumpur, because suddenly there was a big kerfuffle in KL,” Berekoven said.
The next morning, a Malaysian aircraft flew low over Berekoven’s boat and the island.
“A Malaysian coast guard vessel was despatched. Went out there and unbolted the flag,” he said.
“It's absolutely absurd. It’s 88 miles, well within the 200 mile economic exclusion zone, and they’ve forced the Malaysians to take the flag down — their flag, asserting their authority, their sovereignty. --- as posted by http://realpolitikasia.blogspot.my/
And, ABC Australia reports that Malaysia surrendered special rights to Luconia Shoals to China : Rights to adjoining EEZ may be lost.
ABC TV reported on Aug 7, 2016, the incident on or about Aug 31, 2015 when Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency(Agensi Penguatkuasaan Maritim Malaysia) officers removed a Malaysian flag that had been planted on Luconia Shoals by Australian marine archaeologist Hans Berekoven.
Also, suddenly, Malaysia's claim on the Spratly Islands is “Oh, so deafening now!”.
Contrast Malaysia’s inaction or lack of response to a Reuters report from Hong Kong on Aug 10, 2016, that Vietnam has discreetly fortified several of its islands in the disputed South China Sea (SCS) with new mobile rocket launchers capable of striking China’s runways and military installations across the vital trade route, according to Western officials.
Diplomats and military officers told Reuters that intelligence shows Hanoi has shipped the launchers from the Vietnamese mainland into position on five bases in the Spratly islands in recent months, a move likely to raise tensions with Beijing.
The launchers have been hidden from aerial surveillance and they have yet to be armed, but could be made operational with rocket artillery rounds within two or three days, according to the three sources.
Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said the information was "inaccurate", without elaborating.
Deputy Defence Minister, Senior Lieutenant-General Nguyen Chi Vinh, told Reuters in Singapore in June that Hanoi had no such launchers or weapons ready in the Spratlys but reserved the right to take any such measures.
“It is within our legitimate right to self-defence to move any of our weapons to any area at any time within our sovereign territory,” he said.
The move is designed to counter China’s build-up on its seven reclaimed islands in the Spratlys archipelago. Vietnam’s military strategists fear the building runways, radars and other military installations on those holdings have left Vietnam’s southern and island defences increasingly vulnerable.
Military analysts say it is the most significant defensive move Vietnam has made on its holdings in the SCS in decades.
Hanoi wanted to have the launchers in place as it expected tensions to rise in the wake of the landmark international court ruling against China in an arbitration case brought by the Philippines, foreign envoys said.
The ruling last month, stridently rejected by Beijing, found no legal basis to China’s sweeping historic claims to much of the SCS.
Vietnam, China and Taiwan claim all of the Spratlys while the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim some of the area.
"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands and nearby waters," China’s Foreign Ministry said in a faxed statement on Aug 10, 2016. “China resolutely opposes the relevant country illegally occupying parts of China’s Spratly islands and reefs and on these illegally occupied Spratly islands and reefs belonging to China carrying out illegal construction and military deployments.”
The United States is also monitoring developments closely.
Now, what’s happening to Malaysia and its territorial claims?
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