Minister's visit to S'pore to heal rift

Minister's visit to S'pore to heal rift

SINGAPORE (AP): In a trip intended to soothe recently strained ties, Malaysia's deputy prime minister arrived on Wednesday in Singapore on an official visit.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who came with his wife, three Cabinet ministers and six other ministers, will meet and play golf with Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

Malaysia and Singapore have a long history of verbally sparring with each other, with both countries' officials and media often trading barbs.

The bickering heated up last month after Goh said that ethnic Malays in Singapore have been more economically successful than those in Malaysia. Malays are a majority in Malaysia and a minority in Singapore, whose population is mainly ethnic Chinese.

Malaysian officials and media expressed outrage at Goh's allegation, prompting Goh to deny criticizing Malaysian Malays. Abdullah was quoted on Wednesday in Singapore's Straits Times newspaper as saying he would like to see more cooperation between leaders at all levels.

"They are young in terms of their age or in terms of their involvement in politics," the paper quoted Abdullah as saying of the ministers who traveled with him. "I'd like them to establish a friendship with their counterparts from Singapore.

"There is so much to be gained when leaders develop good rapport between themselves," he was quoted as saying.

During his three-day visit, Abdullah will also meet with the city-state's outspoken elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew and Defense Minister Tony Tan, the statement said.

During a speech late on Tuesday, Lee talked about the increasingly conservative nature of Islam in Malaysia and linked the trend to a decline in foreign investment in Southeast Asia.

Malaysia expelled Singapore amid bitter political differences in 1965, two years after the two united as a single country.

In recent years the two nations have argued over a number of issues including water supply, border crossing locations and military airspace.

Meanwhile, Abdullah has come under fire at home. Malaysia's four-party opposition coalition accused him of directing prison authorities to move jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim out of a hospital and into a smaller prison cell than the one in which he was previously held.

Prison officials contacted by The Associated Press said they had no knowledge of plans to move Anwar, the former deputy prime minister who has been in a government hospital since Nov. 24 with a slipped disc he says was caused partly by a beating he received in custody.