Malaysia needs time to restore ties with S'pore

Malaysia needs time to restore ties with S'pore

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia yesterday accepted an apology and
offer of a retraction from Singapore patriarch Lee Kuan Yew for
remarks which triggered a political row, but said restoring ties
to their former level would take time.

"The Malaysian government accepts the unreserved apology
tendered by Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and views positively his
intention to retract the offending paragraphs," Foreign Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said after a cabinet meeting on the issue.

"However, it should be acknowledged that this episode has
deeply hurt Malaysians of all sections of society and the
restoration of the old level of relationship would take time," he
added.

The Malaysian cabinet held its weekly meeting two days after
Lee promised to withdraw remarks in a court document branding
southern Malaysia's Johore state, linked by a causeway to
Singapore, as "notorious for shootings, muggings and car-
jackings."

The remarks were contained in an affidavit backing defamation
suits filed by the 73-year-old Lee with Singapore's High Court
against a defeated opposition candidate, Tang Liang Hong, who
sought refuge in Johore after allegedly receiving death threats
in Singapore after general elections in January.

Lee, who led Singapore to independence from Malaysia in 1965,
said on Monday he had told his lawyers to strike out "the
offending words" from his affidavit which unintentionally became
public, sparking outrage in Malaysia.

While the Malaysian government and opposition have accepted
Lee's apology and proferred retraction, a non-government
organization in Kuala Lumpur called for a picket yesterday
outside Singapore's diplomatic mission here.

"The current row over the disparaging remarks on the crime
rate in Johore by Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew has distracted
attention from the real issue -- the systematic and savage
persecution of those who express opinions contrary to the PAP
(People's Action Party) government," said the Voice of the
Malaysian People, SUARAM.

The group urged Singapore to "stop persecuting political
opponents."

Lee's PAP has ruled predominantly ethnic Chinese Singapore
since 1959. The island broke away from the Malaysian federation
in 1965 amid a dispute over Kuala Lumpur's preferential treatment
of Malaysia's native Malay majority.

Malaysia's national news agency Bernama said in a commentary
yesterday that despite the cabinet decision to accept Lee's
apology, "the damage to bilateral relations has been done".

It said diplomatic relations were perceived to be "at their
lowest ebb, given the fact that just about every Malaysian feels
insulted over the remarks".

It said Lee was also "insulting the intelligence of his own
Singaporean fellow citizens who travel by the thousands across
the causeway daily to Johore, and feeling more free than in their
own country in the process".

"This is because among other things they can chew gum in
Johore and even throw rubbish as they once in a while do."

Squeaky-clean Singapore bans the sale of chewing gum, but it
is an open secret that Singaporeans source their chewing gum from
merchants in Johore.