Singapore and Malaysia ties on the mend?

Producer: Yvonne Gomez
First broadcast: 12 January 04, Radio Singapore International

According to Prime Minister Goh Chok the meeting allowed both sides to discuss ways to maximise their common areas so as to strengthen cooperation.

PM Goh: I had a very good, frank and friendly exchange with Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi. I told him frankly how I saw we could move our relations forward. I've been at this for many years now, discussing issues with Prime Minister Mahathir. And over the years, the issues which we discussed as a package, and later on as individual items outside the package, had ended up in what I told him was "deadknots", like golden knots - you can't untie them. So I suggested that maybe for the future, we should refer these deadknot issues to third parties to arbitrate or adjudicate and look forward to cooperation in many areas. And if there are any issues, we'll try and resolve them before they become tied in deadknots which we cannot disentangle.

However, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said he prefered to deal with bilateral issues differently. Mr Goh outlined this approach.

PM Goh: Basically, he prefers discussion before we move them to third parties.
I listened to him, and told him that I'm agreeable to his approach, if he can come up with something which we can consider. So that's the agreement that we have, to just try and see how we can try to resolve the issues. If we can't resolve them, both of us will be alert to the danger of tying ourselves in knots again. So if we can't resolve the issues, we would recognise this and them of course, at that point in time, refer them to third parties. But of course we hope that doesn't come about. We do want to try and see how we can move our relations forward.

Prime Minister Abdullah elaborated on why he preferred to discuss outstanding issues again before referring them to third parties for arbitration.

PM Abdullah: I feel that we shouldn't allow these bilateral issues to remain unresolved, or later on, pass them over to a third party for arbitration. I have suggested to Prime Minister Chok Tong that I would prefer it if we discussed this, even if it means discussing it all over again. We have to think out of the box and find some other ways or strategies to resolve these issues. And I'm happy that Prime Minister Chok Tong had said that he's agreeable to that suggestion, and asked me what the specific things were that I would like to suggest. I said it was good that this is how he felt, and that I would come back to him with some very, very specific issues and some suggestions on how we can resolve these issues. We understand each other that we want to, and must solve these issues. We cannot allow these issues to remain unsolved for ever and ever. This is important for our bilateral relations as we look at Singapore ad Malaysia as partners in many ways, and therefore whatever differences we have with Singapore. We must try to solve those problems as soon as possible.

On the package approach that Singapore had wanted to take, Prime Minister
Abdullah had this to say.

PM Abdullah: I also did suggest that we may have to unscramble the package, because in the package, there may be some issues that can be resolved immediately, without having to wait until everything in the package is solved. Some issues will take a long time, and because these issues will take a long time, the slimper issues cannot be resolved, although it can be done very easily. So we have to pluck some low-hanging fruits before the musang comes to take them away.

But what those disputes already referred for international arbitration, like the issues of Pedra Branca and land reclamation, Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said that both countries will proceed with the process that has already been started.