Balls on Malaysia court [WATER TALKS]
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Thursday October 31, 10:17 PM
Singapore lays bare twists and turns in water talks with Malaysia
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The Government has given a detailed account to Members of Parliament of the twists and turns in Singapore's water talks with Malaysia.
It has also released details from a recent exchange of letters between the two prime ministers, which shows clearly that it was Malaysia that unilaterally decided to scrap the package approach to negotiations.
This has left Singapore with no option but to take off the table the concessions it was prepared to make.
When Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong met his Malaysian counterpart on 8 October in Kuala Lumpur, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia wanted to separate water from other bilateral issues.
But Mr Goh explained this would leave Singapore less leeway to make concessions on other issues.
Two days later, Mr Goh received a letter from Dr Mahathir dated 7 October, a day before the two met.
Dr Mahathir had written: "Malaysia has now decided to discontinue the package approach, and to give the highest priority to first resolving the long-delayed water issue, particularly the price of raw water."
Singapore's Foreign Minister Professor S Jayakumar, speaking in Parliament, pointed out that the letter was never mentioned at the meeting although it was already written, and it was Malaysia which unilaterally decided to scrap the package without asking Mr Goh if he agreed.
In his reply, Mr Goh said he had been ready to make concessions on issues like a bridge to replace the Causeway, but added: "Since you now want to deal with the water issue seperately and discontinue the package approach, these trade-offs are no longer possible."
Mr Goh added: "Had you, at our 8th October meeting, told me that you had already written and signed this letter on 7th October, I would have elaborated on the pros and cons of your new approach."
Instead, Dr Mahathir and Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar have made statements deliberately misrepresenting what happened.
Prof Jayakumar said: "These statements have impugned PM Goh's integrity and imply that PM Goh was not telling the truth about what transpired during his meeting with PM Mahathir. Singapore's leaders stand by their words.
Nevertheless, Singapore officials went to Johor Baru two weeks ago, in good faith, to discuss the water issue.
But Malaysia was only interested in raw water, and fobbed off all discussion about water supply after 2061.
Prof Jayakumar says Singapore has made it clear that Malaysia has no legal right to raise current water prices, but the Republic is willing to discuss the issue if Malaysia gets serious about discussing future water supply.
So, the ball is now in Malaysia's court.
Singapore says it is ready to talk, but it will not simply cave into Malaysia's demands. -
What can you expect from the northern kampung types ?
They dressed in Christian Dior western suits, smile with shiny teeth, for the sake of practised photo journal diplomacy, but end up behaving no better than poisonous nipah from their disease infected pig headed minds.
Remember that during WW2, it was the kampung types that betrayed the efforts of the Australian, British, Chinese, Eurasians, Indians and Others in the fight against Japanese.
Can one ever trust them, when we get betrayed repeatedly despite our goodwill shown to them, and only to be rewarded with insults ?
Who else can stoop so low in treating another country's Head of Government with insinuations of him being a liar?
It shows very clearly that they have no respect for Singaporeans, when they can insult the integrity of a person with the good natured spirit of our Singapore PM.
Both these kampung clowns - especially the toe sucking type in the form of the MALAYsian FM - are so simplistic in their schemes that they cannot even get their act together; and exposing their dark scheming minds, when they showed their hand with the date of their letter being one day before the meeting of both the PMs.
Pathetic performance, trying to pin us down, in our PM's words - "we will dig in our heels, and resist harder!" -
eh, i wonder whether u know something called 'inflation'???
ask ppl to agree with to price level fixed few decades ago!!
be reasonable man, we r civilize ppl. -
of course we know wat is inflation...Originally posted by WaLker:eh, i wonder whether u know something called 'inflation'???
ask ppl to agree with to price level fixed few decades ago!!
be reasonable man, we r civilize ppl.
but wat is your point? -
sure... we know inflation. thats why we offered 12 centsOriginally posted by WaLker:eh, i wonder whether u know something called 'inflation'???
ask ppl to agree with to price level fixed few decades ago!!
be reasonable man, we r civilize ppl.
strictly speaking based strictly on inflation and consumer price index, this is a fair price.
it is u people who can't agree with each other. Sg's position has always been clear and united.
it is clear that M'sia wants to rip us off! want to back-date payment some more! Sg is not obliged to pay a higher price but we will if M'sia would just agree and state clearly their terms and if those terms are reasonable. we will pay a fair price for water. no more.
giving concessions to M'sia cos of inflation is reasonable and we have tried that. asking properly and presenting a clear agenda is diplomacy and M'sia has NOT done that.
Sliming Sg in the press for "exploiting" their water resources at an unfair low price is WAR because it infringes upon the spirit of the 1965 seperation agreement.
so tell the clowns in KL to wake up their idea and negotiate properly! NOT everything is negotiable THINK about the implications and consequences before blah-ing everything out to the press. -
by law.. malaysia is not in a position to backdate the water price..
if they wanted a price review.. they should already done so during 1985 and 1986... the legal 2 years to ask for a price review...
they kept quiet...
and when we sign the linggi dam treaty in 1990 stating the 3 sens price...did the hell did they ask for a price review??
no they kept quiet again
and now they want a price review...we already being nice and accomodating to them to agree to review the prices..
why suddently they need money so much?? no money to pay for their military hardware huh?? not everyone wants palm oil as payment..
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I doubt we really want their water anyway. If all our alternate plans going into motion, getting Malaysian water will be a surplus. They are delaying cos they are waiting for something to happen.... but what is it they are waiting for? Something that might turn the water issue in their favor....
They maybe waiting for the right time to do SOMETHING. I smell a rat.... -
The Malaysians are up to something. Looks like they have exhausted their arguments for now. But maybe they are going towards sabre rattling. Rais Yatim's water agreements termination ploy while clumsy and showed that he is 100% ignorant of the Vienna Convention is one explicit sign of aggression. Their song and dance of implementing NS is another part of a larger Malaysian intimidation game plan.
In the meantime, see
http://www.thevoiddeck.org
for our views on why Singaporeans should stand together in the water issue. -
What is the qualification of Rais Yatim to be the 'de facto' Law Minister of MALAYsia ?Originally posted by The Void Deck:The Malaysians are up to something. Looks like they have exhausted their arguments for now. But maybe they are going towards sabre rattling. Rais Yatim's water agreements termination ploy while clumsy and showed that he is 100% ignorant of the Vienna Convention is one explicit sign of aggression. Their song and dance of implementing NS is another part of a larger Malaysian intimidation game plan.
In the meantime, see
http://www.thevoiddeck.org
for our views on why Singaporeans should stand together in the water issue.
What are the qualifications of all the other MALAYsian Ministers that make them qualify to be in positions that affect the lives of all the 20 million odd MALAYsians ?
It is pathetic that these politicians get into the seats of Political Power based on their ability to suck the toes of their PM and other Party Leaders.
Now they try so hard to get us to suck their toes.
If they have such a fetish to be toe-suckers, they would be better off in the Red Light Districts of Amsterdam; at least they get to be in the same showcase of publicity as the girls of Amsterdam's Red Light District. -
Amsterdam girls suck toes????
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Allo Atobe
Yah it is scary that someone like Rais Yatim could even handle a Law portfolio when he knows nuts about it. It is sooooo embarassing that he had to be publicly corrected by Singapore that the Vienna Convention explicitly prohibits the implemenation of a local law to over-ride international agreements.