Malaysia drops plan for bridge to Singapore
International Herald Tribune
APRIL 13, 2006
Wayne Arnold

Backing down from a diplomatic standoff with neighboring Singapore, Malaysia said Wednesday that it was abandoning plans to build a new bridge linking the two countries across the narrow strait that separates them.

The Malaysian prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said that his government was suspending negotiations aimed at convincing Singapore to replace an existing causeway across the narrow Strait of Johor because of public opposition to concessions demanded by Singapore. He also said Malaysia would cease plans to unilaterally build its own half of the bridge.

Analysts said the decision underscored the pragmatism Abdullah had brought to his office since taking over from Mahathir bin Mohamad in late 2003.

While relations with Singapore have in the past devolved into sniping matches between the two nation's leaders, Abdullah appears determined to set aside their 40-year rivalry in the interest of competing with a common rival for trade and investment, China.

"In the end leaders at both ends of the straits realize they need to get on with business as usual," said Chew Ping, director of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor's in Singapore.

The decision also appeared to remove a potential threat to Singapore's crucial shipping interests. Malaysia had argued that the bridge was needed to ease congestion over the busy causeway between Singapore and the adjacent city of Johor Bahru and to reduce pollution in the strait. But it also stood to open the Strait of Johor to maritime traffic, potentially aiding a new Malaysian container port that has drawn business away from Singapore's own.

Singapore, which had rejected the bridge as unnecessary, had agreed to consider it only if Malaysia would sell it sand for reclamation and allow Singapore's military rights to enter Malaysian airspace.

As negotiations dragged on, Malaysia had vowed to build a bridge over its half of the strait and had even unveiled designs for a twisting, U-shaped structure dubbed the "crooked bridge" that would have elevated traffic over the strait and then dropped it back down roughly 500 meters, or 1,600 feet - or away onto Singapore's half of the existing causeway.

Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded with a one-line statement saying, "We are surprised at this sudden decision when negotiations for a full bridge were still ongoing."

United under a single federation after gaining independence from Britain in 1963, Malaysia ejected Singapore two years later to prevent the leaders of predominantly Chinese Singapore from uniting ethnic Chinese in Malaysia, predominantly Muslim and Malay. 

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune