Pedra Branca / Pulau Batu Puteh Goes to Singapore

From The Star 24 May 08:

Decision resolves 28-year-old dispute

The 28-year dispute over the ownership Pulau Batu Puteh is over with the International Court of Justice awarding it to Singapore.

However, the court in The Hague awarded Malaysia the ownership of Middle Rocks, a group of rocks located 0.6 nautical miles (1.1km) south of Pulau Batu Puteh, or Pedra Branca as it is known in Singapore.

The ICJ did not determine the ownership of South Ledge, a smaller group of rocks 2.1 nautical miles (3.8km) south of Pulau Batu Puteh, stating that its sovereignty would depend on whose territorial waters it was located in.

Case acting president and ICJ vice-president Judge Awn Shawkat AlKhasawneh delivered the decision, which is binding and not subject to appeal.

According to The Star 24 May 08, the reasons for the International Court of Justice awarding the island to Singapore:

Three reasons why island went to S’pore

Failure to show ownership over Pulau Batu Puteh, maps that indicated Singapore’s sovereignty over the island, and a reply from a Johor state official saying that the state did not have sovereignty over the island were some of the reasons why Malaysia lost its case.

International Court of Justice case acting president Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh, when delivering the court’s decision in The Hague yesterday, said Johor initially had sovereignty over the island.

However, Johor and subsequently Malaysia lost its ownership to Singapore because of those reasons.

Anyone thinks that the judges’ decision was unofficially influenced a bit by the fake-tography on the fake-o-bloggy thing?

Singapore’s version:

     

Malaysia’s version:

    

To date, that fake blog is still ‘Personal’, i.e. defunct and not updated.

More info and the background on the case can be found at The Wikipedia entry.

Malaysia Uses Fauxtography From Sockpuppet Fake Blog in ICJ Pulau Batu Putih Case

Malaysia and Singapore are currently involved in an International Court of Justice over which nation rightfully has control of the small island Pedra Branca, known to Malaysia as Pulau Batu Putih. 

(UPDATE 24 MAY 2008: Singapore wins the case.)

And strangely enough, our Malaysian government – which as has in the past repeatedly dismissed bloggers as karaoke singers, goblok, monkeys, lying females and unemployed good-for-nothings – used an image from a blog as evidence in the ICJ case.

But don’t celebrate the new open-minded paradigm yet.

Because it was a faked image.

Why do we say faked? Because as this image from Simply Jean shows, the image has been touched up to show a Johor mountain 7 times nearer and larger than reality.

Singapore’s version:

     

Malaysia’s version:

    

I saw television footage of the island and the mountain behind, and I would have to agree with the Singapore version above. 

And it was sourced from a sockpuppet, fake blog.

Why do we say fake? Because upon further examination, the blog in question, http://www.leuchtturm3.blogspot.com/, only had a mere four entries in October 2007 and eight entries in November 2007 when it was exposed.

(UPDATE 24 MAY 08: Still no new content on the fake blog.)

The blog post on the disputed island of Pedra Branca, with the image-edited picture of the lighthouse and Johor mountain, was only created on 2 November 2007 – four days before the ICJ proceedings.

And the text of blog post is plagiarized almost 100% word for word from the Wikipedia article on Lighthouse. Talk about a lazy, half-a$$ed con job.

Ladies and gentlemen, this may very well be a case of Malaysia’s government engaging in sockpuppetry – blogging and commenting under a pseudonym in order to praise oneself and support oneself. That should really show those anti-Government bloggers that Kerajaan Malaysia Boleh!

If our government really were responsible for it, well, I suppose we should expect that kind of quality from the loyal Government Enslaved Servants.

This attempt at deception is on par with the Western lie-beral mainstream media fakery. Looks like our Look East, hate Western Imperialism fellers pick and choose what they want to learn from the West.

In fact, it’s incredibly reminiscent of the fauxtography related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, as I give several examples of in Malaysiakini: Are US News Agencies Biased Against Palestine?.

And just like the dishonesty in the above cases, this particular made-in-Malaysia fraud was exposed by a blogger – Singaporean Simply Jean.

Proving once again that Wikipedia is dominated by non-Government Enslaved acolytes, the article on Pedra Branca has a section on the controversy with links.

My question now: Should the perpetrators be detained and punished? Both the (likely Malaysia based but lying through his teeth) blogger, and his masters? Because remember, our very own Prime Minister warned that online liars will be detained!

Read all about it at Jeff Ooi: Malaysia uses plagiarist’s blog to claim Pedra Branca at ICJ?

Also covered at What A Lulu: Lulu’s Attempt To Be Petty

So tell me, good sirs, who are the liars now?

Bloggers who exposed the fauxtoraphy in the fake blog?

Or the powers behind the fake blog who are attempting to pull a scam on the international level?