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.