Half bridge
Plan scrapped
Perish the thought if Singaporeans think its victory for them; expect short-term uncertainty especially on water talks. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Apr 13, 2006

There are two general reactions among Singaporeans to the Malaysian decision to drop its plans to build a half-bridge to Singapore.

Firstly, it is a victory for Singapore, an end to a source of threat to its water supply; secondly, with this problem gone, the future will be smooth.

In my view, neither could be justified.

The people of Johor, in particular, are annoyed with their government for 'giving way' to Singapore and may make things difficult for Malaysia-Singapore cooperation deals that involve it, including water. (See The power of Johor)

For a little while at least, both sides are unlikely to resume negotiations on bilateral issues.

Which way relations will move will depend largely on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his UMNO colleagues.

Some analysts feel that, with the bridge controversy out of the way, the talks could in fact move to a more meaningful stage.

A less optimistic view is that, it could result in a hardening of UMNO attitudes to further talks with Singapore on the belief that - in the words of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad - it's hard to be friendly with it.

At any rate I expect a period of cooling off. Whatever he wants, PM Abdullah will probably not want to be seen as too accommodating to Singapore for fear of upsetting UMN0 in general, and Johoreans in particular.

There may even be some hiccups here and there. After stopping Singaporeans from discouraging subsidised petrol and sugar, expect other areas to be included in future, like health care, medicine, etc.
By Seah Chiang Nee