Published: Saturday June 13, 2009 MYT 1:11:00 PM
Updated: Saturday June 13, 2009 MYT 9:12:23 PM
Lee has guarded optimism for KL-Singapore ties (Updated)
KUALA LUMPUR: Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has guarded optimism for future cooperation between Singapore and Malaysia, after four days of meetings with top leaders here.
He found the Malaysian Cabinet solidly behind Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s new policy of cooperation with Singapore, he told reporters.
He said he emphasised to Najib that such cooperation must be long term and across the board as massive investments are involved.
“I had to emphasise that it cannot be cooperation today, non-cooperation next year and then back again, backwards and forwards,’ he said here Thursday night.
“No private investor will go into huge projects, which require decades to recoup, unless there’s long-term stability in the policy,” he added.
The two iconic projects proposed for both countries to work on together are the Iskandar Malaysia economic corridor and a third bridge linking Changi to Malaysia’s east coast.
Najib also proposed a north-south highway on the eastern side to Pekan in the state of Pahang, Lee said.
Whatever the joint projects decided upon, Lee said the final balance of outcomes must be fair on both sides.
For example, it would not make sense for Singapore to agree on a third bridge if Johor does not lift its ban on the export of sand to the Republic, in place since 1997, he said.
On outstanding bilateral issues, the Minister Mentor took a firm line, saying ‘there are no long-standing bilateral issues which cannot be resolved.’
He said these outstanding issues involve firm agreements signed by both sides, and there is no cause to either quarrel over them or forget about them.
If differences of interpretation arise, they can be referred to arbitration or adjudication by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), he added.
Lee also called on the media on both sides to play their part to support bilateral cooperation.
Lee said he called on Rosmah because he had been told that she and her husband worked as a team and it was necessary for him to understand both members of the team.
He asked to see her, and Najib made arrangements for them to meet.
Lee said he found Najib and his wife “warm, positive and, more than I had expected to find them - forthcoming.”
“They spoke frankly to me and I spoke frankly in return,” he said.
Lee visited Rosmah at her home in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday afternoon.
They spoke for an hour over satay and kueh.
They were joined by the three ministers accompanying Lee on his trip - Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen and Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew, as well as senior parliamentary secretary Masagos Zulkifli.
Lee and Rosmah exchanged notes on their families.
She expressed interest in Singapore’s Gifted Education Programme and said she hoped there could be cooperation on that front.
Lee also spoke about bilateral cooperation.
He made the same point that he had earlier conveyed to Najib.-- The Straits Times/ Asia News Network
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