Typically, as with Sipadan and Ligitan, an ICJ ruling gives everything to one applicant and leaves the other empty handed, an outcome Indonesia accepted "bitterly". The settlement "did not inspire confidence for others to utilize the same adjudication process", wrote Endy Bayumi, a former editor-in-chief of the Jakarta Post. "Indonesia for one is unlikely to go back to The Hague anytime soon." Noting that the ICJ gave sovereignty to Malaysia simply because it had de facto jurisdiction though a presence on the two islands, he said the lesson for Jakarta was to ensure that all its remaining 17,504 islands --- "it wasofficially 17,506 in 2002"--- particularly those on distant borders, are populated.