Singapore Writer Says Malaysia is Not Good at Honouring Agreement

A Kadir Jasin

In the name of God, the merciful and the compassionate

PREAMBLE: Views expressed herein are entirely mine. I am writing in my personal capacity as a blogger. It has nothing to do with whatever position I may hold.

Ancient China was warlike

THE Najib-friendly Malay Mail (MM) – that’s because the former NST Group newspaper is now owned by a Najib’s friend by the name of (Datuk) Siew Ka Wei – had reported something to the effect that our country Malaysia doesn’t understand the honour of agreements.

Siew was appointed Chairman of Tourism Malaysia by the former kleptocratic Barisan Nasional (BN) government in 2016. I’m not sure if he’s still hanging on to the glamorous job inspite of the May 9 annihilation of the BN.

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With many Najib’s era chairmen and CEOs of the government-linked agencies resigning voluntarily or being shown the door, I won’t blame you if you’ve lost track of who had gone, who is hanging on and who is about to be booted out.

They are being booted out not only because they campaigned actively for the BN - to the extent of using their corporations' money - but also because they are bad managers.

I saw Siew and his good friend (who is also a long time acquaintance of mine), (Tan Sri) Al Amin, camping in Langkawi during the recent general election to campaign for the BN.

Like their friend, the recently booted-out former Treasury Secretary General, (Tan Sri) Irwan Serigar Abdullah, they camped in Langkawi to make sure that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad did not win the Langkawi seat.

Too bad for them he won handsomely and is now the Prime Minister.

The Small and Medium Industry Development Corporation’s official website still lists Tan Sri Dr Ir (Dr) Mohamed Al Amin Hj Abdul Majid as its chairman.

Siew (in red) and Al Amin are inseparable

Back to the MM report which states that a Singapore writer by the name of Wee Kek Koon had criticised Malaysia for cancelling the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR).It is a serious allegation.

The article quoted by the MM was originally published by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP), which is used to be owned by the China-based Malaysian billionaire, Mr Robert Kuok Hock Nien. It’s now owned by China’s Jack Ma. He bought the iconic paper from Kuok in 2016. Jack Ma’s full name is Ma Yun and he’s estimated to worth US$42.6 billion (about RM170.4 billion).

To avoid misquotation, I would henceforth refer to the SCMP’s original column instead of from the MM’s quotation of the SCMP.

That report was headlined: “Ancient Chinese understood the importance of honouring agreements” with the strapline “Malaysia’s unilateral decision to scrap the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore rail project takes this Singaporean back to Mahathir Mohamad’s first premiership when relations between the two Southeast Asian countries were ‘fraught with difficulties”.

Just in case you are interested to know more about the June 7 article, you can read the full SCMP original report HERE.

To begin with, Mr Wee’s motivation for writing on the subject was his disappointment with the decision of the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) government to cancel the project.

That report was headlined: “Ancient Chinese understood the importance of honouring agreements” with the strapline “Malaysia’s unilateral decision to scrap the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore rail project takes this Singaporean back to Mahathir Mohamad’s first premiership when relations between the two Southeast Asian countries were ‘fraught with difficulties”.

Just in case you are interested to know more about the June 7 article, you can read the full SCMP original report HERE.

To begin with, Mr Wee’s motivation for writing on the subject was his disappointment with the decision of the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) government to cancel the project.

He wrote: “Malaysia’s decision to scrap the US$25 billion Kuala Lumpur-Singapore rail project has left me disappointed. As a Singaporean with friends and family in peninsular Malaysia, travelling to Kuala Lumpur on a bullet train would have been much faster – just 90 minutes – than the five hours by road. It would probably have been even quicker than a direct flight, if one considers the amount of time one must spend waiting in airports and negotiating the distances and traffic between airports and city centres.”

I sympathised and agree with Mr Wee on the quick journey the HSR promises. But for us who are paying for the project, the consideration is much more than Mr Wee’s quick getaway from the stifling concrete jungle of his First World island nation to the open country of the upper middle income Malaysia.

Ancient Chinese or not, we don’t have money to splash on such an exclusive project. We have other more pressing expenditures to worry about. Thank’s to the Singapore-friendly “Cash is King” Najib, we are up to our chest in debt. RM1.3 trillion in debts and debt guarantees to be exact.

That’s a lot of debt Mr Wee. Of course it helps if Mr Wee can recommend to the Singapore government to hasten the return billions of ringgit 1Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB) money that Najib and his kleptocratic gang carted away to the republic.

And if ancient Chinese also abhorred thievery then I’m even happier. I’m not sure if modern Singapore is guided by the honour of the ancient Chinese, but I’m happy to read reports that Singapore authorities are in talk with the Malaysian government representatives to return the stolen money to us. Thank you Mr Wee and thank you Singapore.

According to Mr Wee, the ancient Chinese understood the importance of agreements, which they entered into through formal and informal means, such as written contracts, blood oaths, verbal promises and physical gestures such as clapping the other person’s palm with one’s own.

I’m not sure which agreement Malaysia’s former Prime Minister (Datuk Seri I Mappadulung Daeng Mattimung Karaeng Sandrobone Sultan Abdul Jalil) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak entered into with Singapore.

But we can rule out the bloody one. Najib is not known to be that brave to spill blood for anything although he claimed to be a Bugis pendekar and pahlawan.

Other than the concern for our finances, we also have to know what lies behind this billion ringgit project.

Let me put it this way for Mr Wee’s easy understanding. We may not know much about ancient Chinese and their blood oath, but we know a lot about our former Bugis-warrior Prime Minister. So we are suspicious.

I think after losing the Pulau Batu Putih to Singapore during the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s era and the Malayan Railway land during Najib’s era, we the Malaysians are a bit curious and suspicious about the generosity or, as some would say, the ineptitude of our negotiators when dealing with Singapore.

I am not sure how much Singapore is guided by the honour and truthfulness of ancient Chinese, as espoused by Mr Wee, when dealing with Malaysia. What I often hear is Singapore is very proud of its Confucian tradition and does not tolerate corruption.

In conclusion Mr Wee, let me put it this way. Singapore was nothing more than an a fishing village (with 120 Malays and 30 Chinese) when the British-installed Johor Sultan, Tengku Hussein, granted the British East India Company the right to establish a trading post for a yearly payment of 5,000 Spanish dollars back in 1819.

Raffles turned it into a free port and its early success came from the trade in opium which was then legal and was the monopoly of the East India Company.

The British idea of conquest of China was to make Chinese opium addicts. For that the British went to war with China – the opium war. Today drug addiction remains a scourge in China.

Wallahuaklam.