Kedah Ruler Didn T Attend Rulers Meeting On Rome Statute

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Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir is prepared to explain the Rome Statute to state monarch Sultan Sallehuddin Sultan Badlishah to help ease any confusion on the matter
"The Sultan of Kedah did not attend the recent (Conference of Rulers) meeting (to discuss the Rome Statute), as His Royal Highness was in Kedah at the time
"If I am summoned, I am ready to explain (the statute). Even though the government has decided (to withdraw from the statute), I feel it is important to ease any confusion that might happen," Mukhriz told reporters in Rantau last night
Mukhriz's father, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, announced last Friday that Malaysia would not accede to the Rome Statute due to the confusion created by "one particular person who wants to be free to beat up people"
PKR president Anwar Ibrahim said the individual mentioned by Mahathir, who was also trying to pit the rulers against the prime minister, was a "royal personality"
Critics of the Rome Statute, including Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, claimed that the treaty would undermine Malaysia's sovereignty and the royal institution
Mukhriz attributed some of the misconceptions on the Rome Statute on four academicians who allegedly wrote a 'biased' paper on the treaty, which was presented to the Malay rulers
'Statute to prevent crimes against humanity'Mukhriz said the paper failed to emphasise the main purpose of the statute, which was to prevent war crimes and crimes against humanity
Earlier, during his speech at a ceramah in Kampung Linsum, Mukhriz sought to explain the Rome Statute by giving a fictitious local example
"For example, say there is a leader with great powers in our country, and for some reason, he wants to kill people, not just one or two, but 100,000 or 500,000... he wants to kill off an ethnic group or destroy a kampung, burn all the houses down
"There are supposed to be laws to investigate, charge and try him in court. But for some reason we are not able to do it, maybe because he is our leader, or we fear that he will kill us, so we dare not take action
"In that situation, when we can't bring him to court, it is then that this international law comes into place to represent the victims of the killings, to investigate, charge and try that person," he said
Stressing that this was an avenue of last resort, Mukhriz hoped that Malaysians would one day better understand the statute, and how it doesn't affect their position so that it can be signed. -Mkini

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