Singapore, Malaysia relations founder over a reef

By Jason Szep

SINGAPORE, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The jagged white, wind-swept rocks terrified sailors for centuries - a piercing reef reviled by colonial traders, cherished by pirates and now at the heart of a bitter territorial row.

Malaysia and Singapore agreed on Thursday to take competing claims over the tiny islet in the Singapore Strait to the World Court in The Hague, moving closer to ending one of the region's longest-running territorial disputes.

Diplomatic jousting over the rocks, known in Singapore as Pedra Branca and in Malaysia as Pulau Batuh Puteh - both names mean white rock - has re-awakened historic rivalries between the neighbors in recent weeks, even sparking talk of war.

In December, as passions in the dispute ran high on both sides of the straits, Malaysia's official Bernama news agency quoted Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar as saying: "Singapore has two choices. If it refuses to compromise...go to war".

Political analysts dismissed Syed Hamid's comment as far-fetched and a reflection of domestic politics in Malaysia, where verbal thrashings of Singapore often score votes.

Both countries maintain strong security, social and economic ties, working hand-in-glove in the war against terror. Both are also members of regional security alliances and the Five Power Defence Agreement with Australia, New Zealand and Britain.

But the tough words over the 200-foot (60-meter) islet, where Singapore maintains a lighthouse, rankled Singaporeans, adding fuel to fiery debate over other outstanding bilateral issues, including the price of water supplied by Malaysia to resource-starved Singapore.

DEEP DIVISIONS

Late last month, Singaporean Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar denounced "loose talk of war" in Malaysia during a special session of parliament. Two days later, in Malaysia, Syed Hamid denied he had threatened war and said any conflict would go to third-party arbitration.

Going to The Hague underscores the difficulty both nations face in overcoming festering differences rooted in Singapore's separation from Malaysia in 1965 and Britain's previous colonial rule of the region.

"There is a very long list of issues that divide the two countries," said Andrew Tan, a professor at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore. "Malaysian-Singapore relations have fluctuated between periods of warmth and periods of heightened tensions. This is a period of tensions."

Other disputes involve Malaysia's customs, immigration and quarantine facilities in Singapore, a proposed bridge linking the two countries, use of Malaysian airspace by Singaporean fighters and pension funds of Malaysians working in Singapore.

But debate over the islet in the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait, about 15 km (10 miles) off peninsular Malaysia's southern coast, is one of the touchiest issues between them.

Singapore's ownership went unchallenged until 1979, when Malaysia first contested it on the grounds that the Johor Sultanate had exercised complete jurisdiction and sovereignty over the outcrop from 1513.

Singapore points to a lighthouse its British colonial rulers built there in 1851 after at least 25 ships foundered on its jagged edges in the pirate-infested waters between 1824 and 1851, according to "The Horsburgh Lighthouse", a history of the rocks.

To Malaysia's annoyance, Singapore also has a helicopter pad and radar station there and patrols its waters - steps that Western analysts say could lead the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule in its favor.

"Under international law, if you continuously occupy a place for a very long time, say for a hundred years, and no one else objects to that occupation, then by international law it is recognized as yours," one political analyst said.

Malaysia used that argument to win control of Sipadan and Ligitan islands off Borneo in a World Court decision last December. Indonesia and Malaysia had been wrangling for 30 years over the two islands, which lie in world-class diving waters.

"The Sipadan and Ligitan ruling makes it easier for this issue to be resolved," said Tan. "It's politically easier for Malaysia to refer this to the ICJ. If they lose, they can shrug their shoulder and say look, we got Sipadan and Ligitan."

But for many Malaysians and Singaporeans, bad feeling over the issue could linger long after arbitration.

In the southern Malaysian city of Johor, just a few minutes drive across the narrow causeway linking the two countries, 45-year-old Abdul Ghani is indignant at the idea of Singaporeans taking control of the tiny islet.

"Of course it belongs to Malaysians," the taxi driver said. "It's a small island and Singapore has built a lighthouse on it, but it's part of Malaysia."

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