PAIN BY A THOUSAND CUTS? ‘CHILL, MAN’ – HO CHING, WIFE OF S’PORE PM, TICKS OFF MAHATHIR’S ‘PRIZED’ STRATEGIST: SAD TO SAY, SHE’S NOT WRONG TO MOCK BERSATU MAN’S BULLYING WAYS – SURELY DR M, DESPITE ANTI-ICERD SCARE, HAS MORE CLASS THAN TO RESORT TO BOORISH ‘KERIS-BRANDISHING’ THREATS TO DISTRACT MALAYS, PULL THEM OVER FROM UMNO & PAS TO HIS SIDE

HO Ching, the wife of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, has two words for Bersatu’s policy and strategy bureau chief Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff whose recent comments on a maritime dispute has threatened to fuel a growing diplomatic row between Singapore and Malaysia – “Chill, man”.

The chief executive officer of Temasek Holdings added her comments on her Facebook page, where she shared an article by Singapore news outlet Today online on Rais’ recent opinion piece in which he warned that Singapore would get “pain by a thousand cuts” for asserting its position on the maritime dispute with Malaysia.

Rais had said the republic will gain nothing “by hardening its stance” against its neighbour.

Singapore accused Malaysia of altering its limits for the Pasir Gudang port and encroaching into its territorial waters, while Malaysia has maintained that the republic has wrongly extended its borders by virtue of its reclamation activities.

Retired Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan had also commented on the article by Today, saying that Rais’ comments were “typical” of Malaysia trying to bully its smaller neighbour.  – THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT

Ex-envoy accuses Malaysia of ‘trying to tame Singapore’

A RETIRED Singapore diplomat has waded into the maritime border dispute, accusing Malaysia of “trying to tame or domesticate Singapore”, reports the Straits Times today.

Bilahari Kausikan was responding to Dr Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff’s commentary published in Malaysiakini and Malay Mail yesterday in which the Bersatu supreme council member said Singapore will not gain anything by hardening its stance against Malaysia in the ongoing maritime and airspace boundary dispute in Johor.

Rais’ comments are “very typical” of Malaysia’s expectations that Singapore will subordinate its interests to that of Malaysia’s, Bilahari said in a Facebook post yesterday.

“Very typical – what they expect is subordination of our interests to their interests. 

“They have not given up, and never will, trying to tame or domesticate (menjinakan) Singapore, because unless they do so, the intrinsic short-comings of a system based on the dominance of a particular race will be highlighted, particularly since we do better with a different system,” Bilahari said in veiled references to the pro-Malay policies and politics across the Causeway.

The two countries have been embroiled in a spat over their maritime borders since Singapore revealed earlier last week that Malaysia had unilaterally extended the Pasir Gudang port limits on October 25.

Singapore also said Malaysian ships, including vessels belonging to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and Marine Department, have made 14 intrusions into its territorial waters over the past two weeks.

Protesting the “unlawful activities”, Singapore has called on Malaysia to withdraw the vessels and return to the pre-October 25 status quo.

Bilahari added that “if we accept a subordinate position, can we prosper? Is existence by the leave and favour of some other country acceptable? That is what this character’s demands amount to.

“This is the essential reason why a small country should never behave as a small country, that is behave in a way bigger neighbours demand.”

Rais in his op-ed piece said Singapore “kept growing and growing” after its separation from Malaysia in 1965 but without Malaysia “providing all forms of auxiliary support, be they passive or active”, its southern neighbour “would arguably not be where it is”.

“A small gesture of kindness to Malaysia, even the occasional appreciative word, would be nice.

“Instead, Singapore often takes a holier-than-thou approach – believing that only they are right and everyone else is wrong. This includes the current spat over the 1979 maritime border.

“If Singapore has reached an economic size that is larger than ours, why can’t we consider them to be an equal power that we respect, yet demand due privilege – or right – from, in terms of adjusting the price of water sold to them?”

Under the 1962 water agreement, Singapore’s national water agency, PUB, may draw 250 million gallons of raw water from Sg Johor daily, at 3 sen per 1,000 gallons.  THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT

THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT