NEGOTIATIONS WITH MALAYSIA ON THE BRIDGE

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NEGOTIATIONS WITH MALAYSIA ON THE BRIDGE: 9.

Dr Ong Chit Chung asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs to inform the House if his Ministry has entered into negotiations with the Foreign Ministry of Malaysia on the bridge, as stated by the Malaysian Minister for Works Mr Samy Vellu on 13th June 2004, and if so, to update us on the progress on this issue.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs (Prof. S Jayakumar): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, in reply to the Member's question, the answer is that there have been no such negotiations or discussions between the Foreign Ministries of Singapore and Malaysia on the bridge since I last spoke on this subject in this House on 6th February 2004.

Members will recall that the bridge is just one of a number of outstanding bilateral issues where we are waiting for Malaysia to reply with its proposals. And if I may recapitulate, when Prime Minister

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Abdullah Badawi visited Singapore on 12th January 2004, Prime Minister Goh explained that our preference was for these "dead knot" issues to be referred to third parties for arbitration or adjudication so that both sides could move forward with bilateral relations and not be bogged down by these outstanding issues. However, Prime Minister Abdullah wanted to give talks another try, and Prime Minister Goh agreed. The understanding reached was that Prime Minister Abdullah would reply to Prime Minister Goh with specific proposals on how to resolve the various bilateral issues. It was also agreed that these proposals would be first discussed at the Prime Ministers' level. Prime Minister Abdullah has yet to respond with these specific proposals. And, Sir, that is where matters still stand.

Dr Ong Chit Chung (Jurong): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am puzzled that this misimpression has been created, that we are in actual discussion when this is not the case. May I ask the Minister what is their intention? Is it to pressurise Singapore to agree or is it all part of politicking? What will happen if, at the end of the day, no agreement is reached on this issue?

Prof. Jayakumar: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will respond by saying that we should not speculate. As I have always said in this House, we should not be distracted by media reports, and we will respond to the proposals made officially by their government.

I think the Malaysians know our position on the bridge issue and that position is quite simple. As I said at our sittings here on 5th January and again on 6th February, when we reluctantly agreed to the demolition of the Causeway and to build our part of the bridge, it was as part of a package deal that covered several bilateral issues. Malaysia, however, called

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off the package in October 2002. To build our part of a full bridge along with CIQ-related revisions would cost us over $500 million and will also sterilise the use of land under the bridge.

With the package off, we really need to know what is being proposed by Malaysia that would justify our agreeing to build our side of the bridge at such a considerable cost.

So therefore, Sir, we have to first receive the specific proposals from Malaysia. Once we get them, we will study them in good faith and we will come up with our response. But as I have said before also, we can reach agreement only if the proposal is fair and there is a balance of benefits on both sides.

Dr Ong asked what will happen if there is no agreement reached at the end of the day. Well, as both Prime Ministers had agreed - and their Foreign Minister also said so in their Parliament on 25th January - "if no agreement is reached", he said, "we will seek third party help".

But I come back to this point. Let us not speculate. The position is that there have been no talks at the moment between the two Ministries, and we have not received any proposals. Meanwhile, we should not prejudge anything.

But I would add that what is important is that bilateral relations have indeed improved and there is a warmer tone when Ministers and officials meet. And recently, on 13th July, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said that "relations between the two neighbours are good, and (we) have an understanding that (we) will resolve (our) bilateral difficulties." And he said that "the feeling is good" and that he had not seen any public statement or indication in recent months that suggested any bilateral problems. He said he was optimistic that progress would be made and that "it would be in the interest

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of both Singapore and Malaysia to resolve these issues".

I would say that I share the optimism of Prime Minister Abdullah. We do want to get on with our bilateral relations with Malaysia. We are prepared to consider the proposals when we receive them. But I think we have to be patient. And we must not underestimate the difficulties in unravelling these left-over dead knots. We also understand therefore that they need some time and, as stated in their Parliament recently on 7th July, their Malaysian Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs said, and I quote, "the Malaysian government needs time to make detailed preparations to give appropriate consideration over any decision to be made before these [outstanding bilateral] issues are ready to be brought up again to the negotiating table with Singapore", and he added that "negotiations between both countries about these matters will be held as soon as both sides are ready and we agree to start them".

So let us wait for their proposals.