Mahathir blames 'parsimonious' S'poreans for rows
PUTRAJAYA - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad blames a
'parsimonious' attitude by Singapore for the numerous disputes that
have rocked bilateral relations in the past several years.
'We have tried our best to downplay the differences, but the fact
remains that there are things that are done by Singapore which are
detrimental to our interests,' he said yesterday.
'It is ridiculous...how can you buy anything at the same price as
in 1927?' he said, referring to the price of water supplied to
Singapore which Malaysia wants to raise from three sen to RM6.25
(S$2.87) per 1,000 gallons.
'They buy at three sen and they sell to their own people at very
high prices, making huge profits for themselves, and they sell to
ships at S$20.'
Singapore says it sells only a small quantity of water to ships -
about a million gallons per day - which is less than 1 per cent of
its total water demand.
It also says water sold to ships does attract high tariffs but this
is to discourage this kind of demand.
Dr Mahathir recited a litany of other complaints against Singapore,
including the Pedra Branca issue and quarrels over pension funds
for Malaysians working in Singapore.
'We have nothing against Singaporeans, they are actually Malaysians
and many of them have got their parents here - even the leaders
have got their parents here,' he said.
'But they behave in a way that is quite unfriendly, they are very
parsimonious.
'Even if they raised (water payments) to S$3, it's not going to
leave a dent in their finances. They have huge reserves of US$80
billion but they quibble over three sen and it makes it difficult
for us to carry out our very friendly kind of relationship with
them.'
frankly speaking the only issue i have with them is this
statement "'We have nothing against Singaporeans, they are actually
Malaysians and many of them have got their parents here - even the
leaders have got their parents here,' he said.
hell.... since when am i actually a msian? and thank goodness i am
not one..... in fact, one kiwi friend of my asked me the other day
why the msians are so unreasonable.... i am shocked by this
statement since at least there are people out there that is
actually paying attention the issues in spore/msian.
by the way, if this is the case, then the australians, new
zealanders, canandians are british and the americans are mostly
irish....... what kind of statement is this? stupid got limit you
know...... if they still have this mentality then their nation and
race will never progress far.......
