By: Lim Sian See
In his entire 22 years as Prime Minister, Mahathir had never hidden his distaste and hatred for Singapore.
Conflicts and heated arguments between the two countries never
stopped and was a recurring issue whenever domestic politics needed a
bogeyman.
But the crooked bridge was supposed to be the one final revenge for
Mahathir over a humiliation so great that he could never live down or
forget.
In 2003, in one of his last acts just before ending his 22-year
tenure as PM, Tun Dr Mahathir announced that Malaysia would go ahead and
build a crooked bridge.
The other last act before leaving power was when Mahathir
mysteriously and very quietly directly awarding a lucrative sports
betting license worth billions to his friend for just RM25m – but that’s
another story.
The failure of his successor Abdullah Badawi to push ahead with
replacing the Causeway led Dr Mahathir to viciously attack him in 2006.
The move, observers say, eventually pushed Tun Abdullah to resign in
2009.
The still influential Dr Mahathir now claims that Datuk Seri Najib
Razak also failed to keep his promise to build the crooked bridge, and
has asked Najib to step down.
In a TV interview in April 2015, Najib disclosed that this was one
of the chief reasons why relationships between both of them broke down
leading to Najib not speaking to Mahathir for 6 months.
“He (Dr Mahathir) had two things he wanted me to do. He wanted me to
do away with BR1M and the Johor crooked bridge,” Najib said during a
televised interview on TV3.
“I respect Tun, just like I respect all the people,” he added.
“I gave my views on these issues. I see it as discussions between two individuals… It is quite healthy to have a difference in opinion, but in the end, I still have to be accountable to the rakyat and the party.
“Most of these issues were brought to Cabinet and Cabinet will decide on it,” Najib
In response Tun Mahathir replied in his own interview that Najib broke his promise to build ‘crooked bridge’
“Not even one of the things that I had expected would be done, after I stepped down, has been done.”
“Najib still continues to do whatever he wants to do and I feel things (that he’s doing) are not right.” said Mahathir
But why did Mr Najib not proceed with the crooked bridge?
Mr Najib and his Singaporean counterpart Mr Lee Hsien Loong had
agreed instead to building a third link between Johor and Singapore.
According to Dr Mahathir, Mr Najib told him that Malaysia could not
proceed with the crooked bridge as there was an agreement not to touch
the Causeway unless both sides agreed.
Mahathir had disclosed that Najib had claimed, during a one on one
meeting between them after dinner one day, that there was an agreement
between both countries on the causeway and that meant the crooked bridge
could not be built unless both sides agreed.
“I asked him, ‘show me the Agreement’,” said Mahathir, implying that
there was no such Agreement and that Najib had lied. “Are we an
independent nation or a colony of Singapore?’, I asked him.” said
Mahathir.
It is thus clear that before Mahathir started his attacks on Najib
and wanted him removed for all sorts of reasons, this Crooked bridge was
the main reason for Mahathir’s anger.
But why does Dr Mahathir want the dang crooked bridge so much?
It boils down to Mahathir’s personal humiliation, hatred and anger.
If you examine the designs of the crooked bridge, Mahathir had
wanted to use the crooked bridge to stop the water pipelines connecting
Singapore to Malaysia which then then carried 50% of Singapore’s
life-giving water. Let the ramifications of that sink in while you think
about it from Singapore’s perspective and why they would refuse to
build the crooked bridge.
It was really Mahathir’s way of punishing Singapore.
Now, exactly what gives? To answer that, we need to reach further
back into history. Specifically, the years of 1997 and 1998 and the
Asian Financial Crisis.
The then-prime minister was in a quandary. He had sacked his deputy,
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and to make matters worse, the country was
experiencing a financial crisis unlike any other before.
Currency speculators had devalued the Malaysian ringgit to a
fraction of its previous value. Attempts by BNM to prop up the ringgit’s
value had been expensive and ultimately futile. Malaysia was virtually
bankrupt.
There was no more money left due to Mahathir and Anwar’s mismanagement of the economy during the 1990s.
With metaphorical hat in hand, Dr Mahathir made a visit to Singapore to meet with PM Goh Chok Tong.
Although unreported in the Malaysian media, Singapore’s media
nevertheless broke the news that Dr Mahathir had asked Singapore for a
USD5 billion loan, as Malaysia was in dire straits financially.
If you don’t believe me, have a look at this November 2008 video of
Mahathir asking Singapore for financial help on live TV – which of
course was never reported in Malaysia.
Look at how sheepish Mahathir and Pak Lah looked when asking Singapore for help despite Tun M whacking Singapore for decades.
Other than Singapore newspapers, Hong Kong media also reported then:
It was the first top-level meeting between the two countries since
relations, testy even before the added pressure of the Asian financial
crisis, started to deteriorate rapidly earlier this year. They last met
in April.
Dr Mahathir said he intended to raise funds from neighbouring Singapore, though he didn’t say how much or what the money would be used for.
“We need to raise some funds from Singapore,” he said, adding that Singapore could be of help to Malaysia “during the economic crisis”. Mr Goh had little to add except that “we are resuming a discussion” and that he was pleased by Dr Mahathir’s invitation to meet with him.
PM Goh responded positively. Singapore was willing to lend Malaysia the five billion but with “conditions”. It remains unclear exactly what these conditions were as only Dr Mahathir and PM Goh were privy to the details.
Dr Mahathir in any event decided that these conditions were
unacceptable and returned to Malaysia empty-handed. Indonesia’s
President B.J. Habibie had been closely observing these matters and
pronounced loudly that “a friend in need is a friend indeed”.
Although the IMF had offered Malaysia a similar loan, that too came
with IMF-imposed conditions and obligations which Dr Mahathir similarly
refused to accept.
Ultimately, as we may now recall, the ringgit was made
non-convertible outside Malaysia. Effectively, the ringgit overnight
became utterly worthless in every country on earth except for Malaysia.
Over time, Malaysia’s financial situation stabilised. Malaysia’s
relationship with Singapore, however, had irretrievably broken down. The
good doctor’s ego had been severely bruised by his having to “beg” and
his humiliation in Singapore.
Subsequently, relations between the two nations became even more
acrimonious. Malaysian media regularly carried negative news about
Singapore.
The hidden message was made very clear when Dr Mahathir proclaimed “there’s more than one way to skin a cat”.
The Lion City, no doubt bristling at the threat, shot back via
professor Jayakumar: “No cat will simply lie down and wait quietly to be
skinned.”
When plans for the demolition of the Causeway were revealed and the
images of the new crooked bridge were made public, the penny dropped.
Before resigning as PM, Dr Mahathir obtained the assurance of his
successor Pak Lah that the crooked bridge would become a reality.
Meanwhile, Singapore now realised that their only source of national
water was no longer certain although water supply contracts were still
in force. Heavy expenditures were made on desalination technologies as
well as “NEWwater” which was purified raw sewage that was “clean enough
to drink” and desalination plants.
The extent of which Singapore is now almost self-sufficient in water
if they wanted to be and the threat of this crooked bridge and the
stopping of water from Malaysia is no longer effective on Singapore.
And plus, Malaysia cannot simply cut water supplies to 6 million
people – which is what construction of the crooked bridge would do. This
would certainly cause an international incident and possibly war.
This means that the purpose of the crooked bridge is of no more and
there is little reason any more why Najib would want to build this and
destroy our relationship with our neighbour.
And Dr Mahathir never got his revenge for the humiliation of having
to be a “beggar” – which is a reason why Mahathir is so angry with Najib
then and wanted him to be removed for “breaking his promise”.
All it boils down to is that Tun Mahathir’s initial anger and
insistence in removing both Pak Lah and Najib was all due to both Prime
Ministers denying Tun Mahathir his revenge and dendam by not building
the crooked bridge.
In an interview by the Johor Sultan just recently in Dec 2015, it is
clear that the Johor Sultan is well-aware of Mahathir’s intentions and
“hati dendam” when he said:
Najib is deeply concerned about issues affecting Johor because of our proximity to Singapore, which is a strategic partner to Johor. Both of us believe that Johor and Malaysia will benefit from the ongoing development and when the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore fast train is built, the benefits will be enormous.
I do not want to dig up the past nor do I wish to take a swipe at any politician, active or retired, but the PM understands and appreciates the need to work closely and not to repeat the past.
I find it hard to understand the rationale or irrationality of any Malaysian leader who wants Malaysia to quarrel with Singapore. It’s what I called crooked thinking.
“Active or retired leader with Crooked thinking that dislikes Singapore” I wonder who that is?
His Highness, the Johor Sultan certainly knows.
It is very unbecoming and unreasonable for an ex-Prime Minister
living in the twilight of his life still holding on to this malicious
dendam and anger – to the extent of wanting to destroy our country’s
relationship with our neighbour unnecessarily, create chaos in
Malaysia’s politics which hurts our economy and wanting to remove two
democratically-elected Prime Minister.
All because of his own humiliation and his subsequent dendam.
Let me para-phrase Yoda here:
“Dendam is the path to the dark side. Humiliation leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering”.
Disediakan oleh : PeneranganPemudaSEREMBAN
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