Indonesia dismisses Mahathir’s ‘claim’ over Riau Islands

Indonesia has dismissed as "baseless" a statement by former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who told the Malaysian people earlier this week to demand that Singapore and parts of Indonesia "be given back to us".

Mahathir said that Singapore once belonged to the state of Johor and that Malaysia should have reclaimed it, just as it did when it won its claim against Indonesia over the Sipadan and Ligitan islands off Borneo at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2002. Instead, Malaysia gave up a rocky island "the size of a table" to Singapore at the same court in 2008.

The two-time prime minister was referring to Pedra Branca, which was among the several islets to the east of the Singapore Strait that had been the subject of a territorial dispute between Singapore and Malaysia since 1979. The dispute was largely resolved by the ICJ, which ruled that Pedra Branca belonged to Singapore.