I thought he’ll be wide awake since his exit is drawing closer. How wrong I was. It seems the sleeping beauty continues sleeping and will only wake up a few nano-seconds before he leaves.
What happened in Brunei a few days ago was a case of too much sleep. Pak Lah was in Brunei for a Letter of Exchange (LoE) ceremony on the demarcation of land boundaries. At the end of the ceremony he gave a press conference where he stated that Brunei has dropped claims over Limbang.
Finally this long standing territorial claim has been resolved. Everybody in Malaysia was very happy with the outcome and this includes the Chief Minister of Sarawak. With this LoE, everyone thought we’ve settled this issue with Brunei and we can go to sleep with the notion that we don’t have to be dragged to The Hague and stand to lose another territory. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be.
Like a lame Jack Ryan movie, there’s another twist to the plot. Brunei's Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Datuk Seri Lim Jock Seng stated that Limbang was never discussed during the meeting between Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Pak Lah.
Wait a minute! Which is which? Did the press misquote Pak Lah? Maybe Pak Lah conveniently falls asleep during the discussion or he went off to have a round of golf and sent a body double for the meeting?
This claim is false and misleading. What happened here? I don’t know what was in his mind. Did he really paid attention on the discussion or his mind was on his Son In Law? This is embarrassing. Please bear in mind that this claim came from the Prime Minister and not from some half past six Foreign Ministry officer.
Someone from the Foreign Ministry should have corrected it during the press conference but embarrassingly we were conveniently correct by someone from Brunei. It seems the Bruneians knew what they were doing.
I can’t comprehend the notion that my Prime Minister was ‘asleep’ during the discussion. And I can’t further comprehend that we didn’t realized about the mistake until the next day.
I think the Foreign Ministry should check the papers again. Make sure he signed the correct papers and signed on the agreed terms. Who knows he might be half asleep while signing the papers and gave the country away when he put pen to paper!
Lucky he’s leaving soon. If not, we’ll be having sleepless nights with this sleepy beauty roaming around signing papers. What we’ve learnt today is that someone needs to stand next to Pak Lah with a stun gun. Just to make sure he’s awake and in the thick of things.
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to be fair to Pak Lah, most probably he was misquoted or his statement was misunderstood by the reporters. i do agree with him that, once the demarcation works on the border is finalised according to the principles being agreed upon by both parties, the issue of Limbang will be over. And he is speaking the truth - yet the way he said it sounds 'undiplomatic' at the very least to the Bruneians.
ReplyDeleteBy agreeing to sign the LoEs, it signalled the intention of Brunei to drop claims on Limbang - since both countries will adhere to the agreed border line. Previously, there has been a one-sided claim by both parties eg each country published their own maps that contradict each other (on Limbang issue).
What he said is correct, but unfortunately eventho he was the Foreign Minister for many years before, his diplomatic skills are still lousy ehehehe..