KL slams S'pore as opposition warns of new rift

KL slams S'pore as opposition warns of new rift

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A top official from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's ruling party blasted Singapore on Friday for allegedly failing to appreciate Malaysia's goodwill towards the neighboring republic.

At the same time, however, Malaysia's opposition warned renewed rhetoric on both sides signaled "another new round of mutual bashing and recrimination" and called for immediate talks between foreign ministers of the two countries.

Mustapha Yaakub, secretary of the international bureau of the ruling United Malays National Organization's (UMNO), said Malaysia had accommodated Singapore over such issues as water supply and intrusions over its air space by fighter jets.

"Singapore has never shown its appreciation to all this. All it knows is starting trouble which is clearly against the ASEAN spirit," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional grouping of which both states are members.

"If Malaysia were to raise one by one its sacrifices to Singapore, there would be many," Mustapha said.

His comments followed remarks by Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar on Thursday that Malaysia had ruled out piecemeal negotiations with Singapore over the unresolved issue of a disputed railway station deep inside Singapore territory.

Syed Hamid said customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) operations at the station "should be settled as a package as agreed on earlier by both countries."

Singapore Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar said on Wednesday Malaysia had a month to present legal arguments justifying why its facilities should remain at the Tanjong Pagar station, where the Malaysia-Singapore railway terminates, rather than at a new site closer to their border.

"We have informed Malaysia that if they do not produce their legal arguments in one month's time, we will assume that they no longer wish to pursue their legal claim to be at Tanjong Pagar," he told parliament.

But Mustapha asked on Friday: "Is the CIQ issue that big that they are accusing us of not respecting Singapore's sovereignty?"

Malaysian opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, meanwhile, called on the two foreign ministers to stop conducting bilateral negotiations through the media.

"The ministers of both governments may enjoy the publicity and even plaudits from their respective constituencies for periodically running down or denigrating each other when one dispute after another flares up," he said.

But "substantial sections of the ordinary people of Malaysia -- and probably Singapore -- are quite weary at the prospect of another diplomatic row," the chairman of the Democratic Action Party said.

Such rows between the region's two closest neighbors are "making nonsense of the much-vaunted ASEAN spirit and solidarity," Lim said, adding the two countries should seek mediation through ASEAN or some other international framework if differences could not be resolved.

Malaysia failed to submit its legal arguments on the railway by an earlier deadline of Dec. 17 but has said its officials would be ready to discuss the issue after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan, which ended this week.

Singapore broke away from the Malaysian federation in 1965, and problems over the station and other issues have been a major irritant in bilateral ties.

The latest flare-up erupted in July when Singapore told Malaysia it would have no legal authority at the railway station after Singapore shifted its facilities closer to the border with the southern Malaysian state of Johor.