blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M
1. When Ismail Sabri went to Singapore for an official visit, I did not really expect him to raise, let alone solve any outstanding bilateral issues that we have been having with the city State.
2. In fact, when I resigned as Prime Minister, on both accounts, none of the succeeding Prime Ministers bothered or were interested to solve the bilateral issues.
3. The price of raw water sold to Singapore remain at 3 sen per 1000 gallons today, a rate that we continue to receive since 1962 when the Johor River Water Agreement was reached.
4. Three sen is like providing water for nothing.
5. Despite millions if not, hundreds of millions lost in revenue, none has shown any interest to resolve the matter and to renegotiate with Singapore.
6. There are also issues of withdrawal of money from the Central Provident Fund for peninsular Malaysians working in Singapore apart from maritime and airspace boundary disputes.
7. Then it was reported that Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Ismail Sabri Yaakob had proposed to revive the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR).
8. I was taken aback. In January this year the Mahiaddin Government had terminated the agreement. An exorbitant RM320 million in compensation had to be paid to Singapore.
9. Ismail Sabri was part of that Government. And now that he is Prime Minister he is proposing to resurrect something he was party to in terminating the project.
10. When I was Prime Minister of the PH Administration, I tried to revive negotiation on the outstanding issues. The Foreign Minister then was Saifuddin Abdullah who incidentally is back as Foreign Minister today.
11. Of course the Sheraton Move caused the demise of effort and progress we had made in negotiating with Singapore.
12. Rather than reviving the HSR, which could well be complemented by the double tracking project, we should instead focus on developing the South Ledge of Batu Putih.
13. We had been accorded sovereignty over South Ledge, while losing Pedra Branca to Singapore, by the ICJ.
14. I had proposed for South Ledge to be reclaimed and expanded and a marine base be built to establish and stamp our sovereignty.
15. We will always have thorny bilateral issues with our neighbours. But we will not go to war. We believe in peaceful resolution and negotiations.
16. But while we aspire to be good neighbours, to be friendly, it cannot be at the expense of our territorial integrity, much more our sovereignty. It is about prioritising.
