The case of RSS Courageous and Pedra Branca

While we are interested in the outcome of the recent International Court of Justice’s case between Singapore and Malaysia over the sovereignty of the island Pedra Branca or Pulau Batu Puteh, we might have forgotten the unfortunate collision of the RSS Courageous which happened off Pedra Branca’s coast. Three Singaporean crew died, eight suffered injuries and one person’s body was never found. To quote Dr Tony Tan during the parliamentary session on 20 Jan 2003:

"RSS Courageous was in the waters off Pedra Branca. There has been a spate of violations of our territorial waters at Pedra Branca by foreign state vessels recently. There were a number of violations in the two weeks before the incident, and there have been several since then.

On the night of the collision, ANL Indonesia was heading out of the Singapore Strait towards the South China Sea. RSS Courageous was sailing in the opposite direction. The two vessels were headed in the general direction towards each other. RSS Courageous had detected ANL Indonesia on radar. ANL Indonesia was also visually sighted by the duty watch personnel on board RSS Courageous. The two vessels subsequently came into a close quarter situation, and both took action to try to avoid a collision. But unfortunately the collision took place. ANL Indonesia rammed into the right rear section of RSS Courageous and a portion of the tail end of the Patrol Vessel was sheared off. This portion included the aft mess, where four servicewomen who were off duty at the time were resting.

Besides these violations, it is also regrettable that the Malaysian government has seized on the tragic accident involving RSS Courageous to try to advance their claim to Pedra Branca."

Pedra Branca is just a small island of area about the size of a football field. Why does a bigger country like Malaysia try so hard to argue that it has the sovereignty of the island even when it seems that Singapore has a stronger case? I think it has got to do with the geographical location of Pedra Branca. It is an island in the Singapore Strait with an important aid to navigation that is passed by about fifty thousand ships every year and whoever owns it can claim larger territorial sea waters. This might be seen by the Malaysian government who owns Tanjong Pelapas as a means to limit the economic development of Singapore’s Port of Singapore’s Authority (PSA).

International Herald Tribune posted an article on Pedra Branca's case on 6 Nov 2007.