This content addresses a dispute over the 1962 water agreement between Singapore and Malaysia, where Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad questioned Singapore's "unreasonable" price for raw water, while Singapore argues for the sanctity of agreements and highlights its own contributions and generosity.
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I think minister and dr. Maliki both
mentioned that efforts have been taken
to make the relationship with Malaysia
more constructive but just yesterday
there were remarks by dr. Maha piya had
a meeting with jaha state government
officials some saying that he is in fact
encouraging the people of jeho to
protest against the current water deal
to say it's unfair and Singapore's a
rich country and should be more generous
does the minister have any comments on this
well thank you for that pointer question
in fact I think there's an article on
page in The Straits Times today Dr
Mahathir the Prime Minister of Malaysia
was reported to me comments yesterday in
Johor and he asked and I were cooked how
Singapore as a rich nation could pay
such an unreasonable price unreasonable
rate for raw water sold by Malaysia
under the 1962 water agreement when
Malaysia was in his own words a poorer
country by GDP per capita he said this
was quote morally wrong uncooked these
are strong emotive words no doubt
intended to rouse public opinion mr.
chairman I'm supposed to be diplomatic
but I think members of this house also
know that I call a spade a spade this is
a red herring the 1960 to water
agreement is not about who is richer or
poorer it is about the fundamental
principle of respecting the sanctity of
agreements and Singh post position on
the 1962 agreement has been clear and
consistent the 62 water agreement was
guaranteed in fact first I should say
that in 1962 when this agreement was
signed Malaysia was an independent
country they had their own leadership
they had their own legal advice and he
entered into this agreement in 1962 in
1965 when Singapore was ejected from the
Federation of Malaysia we took the
precaution of ensuring that the 1962
water agreement was guaranteed by the
governments of both Malaysia
and Singapore it forms in effect part of
our 1965 separation agreement any breach
of the 62 water agreement would call
into question the separation agreement
and this separation agreement is the
basis for our existence as an
independent sovereign state therefore
Malaysia and Singapore must fully honor
the terms of the sixty-two water
agreement including the price of water
that stipulated in it and our
long-standing position has been that
neither Malaysian or Singapore can
unilaterally change the terms of this
agreement between our two countries
as I told the house I think it was in
July last year Malaysia lost the right
to review the price of water under the
1962 water agreement in fact Malaysia
herself has previously acknowledged that
they chose not to seek a review in 1987
because they benefit from the pricing
arrangement under the 1962 water
agreement Dr Mahathir who I would remind
the house was the prime minister at that
point in time in fact he was prime
minister from 1981 to 2003 Dr Mahathir
himself explained in 2002 that Malaysia
did not ask for a review in 1987 as
Malaysia knew that any revision would
also affect the price of treated water
that's sold by Singapore to Malaysia
today Singapore continues to sell
filtered water to Malaysia in excess of
our obligation our obligation under the
1962 water agreement is to sell five
million gallons per day but actually
today as we speak we are selling around
16 million
Gallants Purdy and we are selling it and
a fraction of the costs of treating that
water in other words for every gallon we
are subsidizing on top of this from time
to time PU B also receives additional
requests to supply additional treated
water to jihad for example just between
the 2nd and the 4th of January this year
Singapore supply an additional 6 million
gallons per day of treated water this is
over in above the 16 million gallons per
day that I described earlier and we did
we supplied this to jaha and he needed
more water because its water plants were
experiencing a disruption due to
pollution furthermore members may recall
that in 1990 and again I remind you that
this is during dr. Maha Thea's first
prime ministership the pob and Joe Hall
signed an agreement in 1990 to construct
the link we dam to increase the yield of
the Johar over Johor owns the linky them
but Singapore paid more than 300 million
dollars for its construction and
operational costs as well as
compensation for the land used by the
língua reservoir and for the potential
loss of revenue from logging activities
and also inclusive of a one-time payment
of the lease of that land for the
remaining tenure of the 1962 water
agreement if and this is an important
point if Malaysia had exercised the
right to review the price of water in
1987 Singapore might well have made very
different investment decisions on
developing the johor River overall we
have spent
more than 1 billion Singapore dollars on
water projects in Singapore and this has
helped not only peel these water works
but your horse own waterworks which are
also abstracting water from the same
river in fact members would also recall
that the lingua reservoir dropped the
water level dropped to a historic low of
20 percent in October 20 2016 because
there was a drought and we needed to use
that water in order to supply the
downstream water treatment plants and in
periods of dry weather and just by
coincidence johor is experiencing period
a period of dry weather now that's why
they have been fires and that's why I
mean the smell of burning material in
Singapore in recent days in this period
of dry weather Singapore continues to
provide Johor with treated water upon
their request and we do so out of
goodwill without prejudice or legal
rights under the water agreement
we are permanent neighbors and we want
to be good neighbors and we have never
shied away from dealing with difficult
bilateral issues and this is why Prime
Minister Enda me propose that of the
Mohave when they met in November 2018
that both attorney generals of Singapore
and Malaysia would meet to better
understand each other's positions on
whether Malaysia still had the right to
review the price of water under the 62
water agreement the Attorney General's
actually did meet in December 2018
unfortunately their discussions were
overshadowed by the Jehova report limits
in the Selita instrument landing system
procedures issues issues that we are now
trying to resolve nevertheless the two
Attorney General's will continue their
discussions in due time
since separation in 1965 Singapore has
chosen a different and unique
fundamental philosophy of governance and
quite frankly we've taken a different
path of development Singapore has no
natural resources we're even short of
water but Singaporeans have long
internalized that no one owes us a
living we have provided a framework
where all our citizens strive to do our
best and achieve our potential by dint
of our efforts we take a zero-tolerance
policy towards corruption our government
plans and invests for the long term as
exemplified by this budget that were
debating right now we honor and fulfill
our international agreements and
commitments as a result of that
businesses have the confidence to invest
and grow in Singapore and we make sure
as you all know right now budget that we
invest in infrastructure ahead of time
so on that note I will let members of
the house and fellow Singaporeans
outside decide for yourself whether we
have been fair or to quote dr. mahat
here whether we have been morally wrong
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