KUALA LUMPUR – Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah has clarified that he was not the minister responsible for ratifying the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
He said instead that the ICERD was in the Pakatan Harapan manifesto for the 14th general election, and was mentioned by then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the UN General Assembly in 2018.
“Ratification of the ICERD is in the PH manifesto and was mentioned in the speech of the PM (prime minister) at the UN (in 2018), but I was not the minister responsible for (the) ICERD,” he said on Twitter last night.
He was commenting on allegations by DAP’s national organising secretary Anthony Loke, who claimed that the idea to ratify the ICERD and the Rome Statute was Saifuddin’s.
On November 23, 2018, Saifuddin, who was the foreign minister at the time, was quoted as saying that the then cabinet had unanimously decided not to ratify the ICERD.
Commenting on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Saifuddin said the decision to ratify and then to withdraw was made in a cabinet meeting.
“Both the decision on ratification and later to withdraw from the Rome Statute, was made in the cabinet meeting and I was the minister who was responsible for it,” he said.
On April 5, 2019, Dr Mahathir announced the withdrawal citing confusion the issue had created in the country in terms of politics and also from the ground, not because it could harm Malaysia.
Dr Mahathir said Malaysia, which signed the instrument of accession to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on March 4, 2019, and deposited the instrument to the United Nations secretary-general on the same day, could withdraw the instrument before June.
The UN secretary-general, acting in his capacity as depositary, said Malaysia’s withdrawal from the instrument of accession was effective on April 29. – Bernama, April 14, 2021
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