Outside* - George Michael

Today was pretty memorable. I had the opportunity to attend and "Roundtable Meeting" with the following guests:-

1. The President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) – Judge Sang-Hyun Song of South Korea.

2. Judge of the International Court of Justice (The World Court) – Judge Dalveer Bhandari of India.

3. Third in charge at the Permanent Court of Arbitration – Dr. Aloysius Llamzon of the Netherlands.

4. General of The Hague Conference on Private International Law – Dr. Christophe Bernasconi of Mexico.

It is indeed a treat for someone like me who spent a year studying about the ICC, the ICJ and the PCA. It brought back so much memories of that year in Colchester.

To me, the "star" of the event was surely Judge Song, the president of the ICC. He has held on that post since 2003 - and will be holding on to it until 2015.

I must say that i am a bit ashamed to admit that when i got the chance to go to the Netherlands right after my studies in Colchester, i spent all my time in Amsterdam and did not go to the Hague where the ICC and ICJ is situated.

I really hope i can get the chance to go there in the near future.

This is the closest i ever got to the Hague - when my students went to visit the ICJ and tagged me in thier photo! Lol!

Anyways, back to today - it was interesting to hear Judge Song talk about the ICC - especially on Malaysia's position. Malaysia is not a party to the Rome statute - and as such, we are not under the jurisdiction of the ICC.

But Malaysia has come close to being a state party. In fact, teh ambassador to the Philippines was sharing about how a couple of years ago, the Phillippines decided to seriously consider ratifying the Rome statute - a big reason was becuase Malaysia was considering doing that!!! Now they are under the ICC but Malaysia is still not!

Judge Song gave the illustration of how Malaysia has come to the door of the ICC and even knocked on it a couple of years ago. The door has opened. But up until today, for some reason, Malaysia has not gone inside. We are still outside the door of the ICC.

Is it a lack of political will? There seems to be a fear that the rulers of the country will lose their immunity against prosecution. There seemed to also be a silly excuse that we need to get all our laws in order first before joining - like how someone must study and be an expert in the Bible first before becoming a Christian.

It is quite sad that Malaysia is still lagging in its international obligations. Do our leaders think that there is no need to get the help of the ICC as we are doing fine? i saw a lot of the opposition leaders but none from the government.

It looks like we will still continue to remain outside the doors of the ICC. Sad.

*The lead single from his Greatest Hits album, it was controversial as it took a swipe at the incident where he was arrested for engaging in a lewd act earlier in 1998.