Pulau Pisang to be gazetted as part of Johor

12 July 2010 , By Asia One News

The state government has reiterated that Pulau Pisang is part of the Johor sultanate to defuse any potential dispute between Malaysia and Singapore over the sovereignty of the island.

Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said yesterday the island would soon be gazetted as such by the state government.

"It is clear that the island belongs to Johor," he said in reply to a question by Dr Boo Cheng Hou (DAP-Skudai) on the status of Pulau Pisang.

Ghani said the site of a cemetery on the island would be designated as reserved cemetery land.

On the issue of the lighthouse on Pulau Pisang which is currently being managed by Singapore, he said maintenance workers or any Singaporean going there would need to register themselves at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex in Pontian.

Pulau Pisang, a 178.4ha island off Pontian Kecil, has a lighthouse built under an agreement between then Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim, and the British colonial administration in 1900.

The island is in Malaysian territory, but under the agreement, the government of the Straits Settlements was granted the right in perpetuity to the plot of land on which the lighthouse stands and to the road leading to it, as long as the Straits Settlements operated the lighthouse.