0:02 I think minister and dr. Maliki both
0:04 mentioned that efforts have been taken
0:06 to make the relationship with Malaysia
0:09 more constructive but just yesterday
0:11 there were remarks by dr. Maha piya had
0:13 a meeting with jaha state government
0:16 officials some saying that he is in fact
0:19 encouraging the people of jeho to
0:21 protest against the current water deal
0:22 to say it's unfair and Singapore's a
0:24 rich country and should be more generous
0:27 does the minister have any comments on this
0:37 well thank you for that pointer question
0:39 in fact I think there's an article on
0:43 page in The Straits Times today Dr
0:46 Mahathir the Prime Minister of Malaysia
0:50 was reported to me comments yesterday in
0:56 Johor and he asked and I were cooked how
1:00 Singapore as a rich nation could pay
1:04 such an unreasonable price unreasonable
1:07 rate for raw water sold by Malaysia
1:11 under the 1962 water agreement when
1:14 Malaysia was in his own words a poorer
1:20 country by GDP per capita he said this
1:25 was quote morally wrong uncooked these
1:29 are strong emotive words no doubt
1:35 intended to rouse public opinion mr.
1:38 chairman I'm supposed to be diplomatic
1:40 but I think members of this house also
1:44 know that I call a spade a spade this is
1:49 a red herring the 1960 to water
1:52 agreement is not about who is richer or
1:55 poorer it is about the fundamental
1:58 principle of respecting the sanctity of
2:01 agreements and Singh post position on
2:04 the 1962 agreement has been clear and
2:08 consistent the 62 water agreement was
2:11 guaranteed in fact first I should say
2:14 that in 1962 when this agreement was
2:17 signed Malaysia was an independent
2:20 country they had their own leadership
2:24 they had their own legal advice and he
2:29 entered into this agreement in 1962 in
2:33 1965 when Singapore was ejected from the
2:36 Federation of Malaysia we took the
2:40 precaution of ensuring that the 1962
2:43 water agreement was guaranteed by the
2:45 governments of both Malaysia
2:50 and Singapore it forms in effect part of
2:56 our 1965 separation agreement any breach
3:00 of the 62 water agreement would call
3:01 into question the separation agreement
3:05 and this separation agreement is the
3:06 basis for our existence as an
3:10 independent sovereign state therefore
3:14 Malaysia and Singapore must fully honor
3:16 the terms of the sixty-two water
3:20 agreement including the price of water
3:23 that stipulated in it and our
3:24 long-standing position has been that
3:26 neither Malaysian or Singapore can
3:28 unilaterally change the terms of this
3:32 agreement between our two countries
3:35 as I told the house I think it was in
3:39 July last year Malaysia lost the right
3:43 to review the price of water under the
3:48 1962 water agreement in fact Malaysia
3:52 herself has previously acknowledged that
3:57 they chose not to seek a review in 1987
4:00 because they benefit from the pricing
4:03 arrangement under the 1962 water
4:06 agreement Dr Mahathir who I would remind
4:09 the house was the prime minister at that
4:12 point in time in fact he was prime
4:17 minister from 1981 to 2003 Dr Mahathir
4:21 himself explained in 2002 that Malaysia
4:26 did not ask for a review in 1987 as
4:29 Malaysia knew that any revision would
4:32 also affect the price of treated water
4:36 that's sold by Singapore to Malaysia
4:39 today Singapore continues to sell
4:41 filtered water to Malaysia in excess of
4:44 our obligation our obligation under the
4:47 1962 water agreement is to sell five
4:52 million gallons per day but actually
4:56 today as we speak we are selling around
4:58 16 million
5:01 Gallants Purdy and we are selling it and
5:06 a fraction of the costs of treating that
5:09 water in other words for every gallon we
5:15 are subsidizing on top of this from time
5:18 to time PU B also receives additional
5:21 requests to supply additional treated
5:25 water to jihad for example just between
5:28 the 2nd and the 4th of January this year
5:31 Singapore supply an additional 6 million
5:34 gallons per day of treated water this is
5:38 over in above the 16 million gallons per
5:40 day that I described earlier and we did
5:43 we supplied this to jaha and he needed
5:45 more water because its water plants were
5:48 experiencing a disruption due to
5:52 pollution furthermore members may recall
5:56 that in 1990 and again I remind you that
5:59 this is during dr. Maha Thea's first
6:03 prime ministership the pob and Joe Hall
6:07 signed an agreement in 1990 to construct
6:11 the link we dam to increase the yield of
6:18 the Johar over Johor owns the linky them
6:22 but Singapore paid more than 300 million
6:25 dollars for its construction and
6:28 operational costs as well as
6:32 compensation for the land used by the
6:36 língua reservoir and for the potential
6:38 loss of revenue from logging activities
6:42 and also inclusive of a one-time payment
6:44 of the lease of that land for the
6:48 remaining tenure of the 1962 water
6:51 agreement if and this is an important
6:53 point if Malaysia had exercised the
6:56 right to review the price of water in
7:01 1987 Singapore might well have made very
7:04 different investment decisions on
7:10 developing the johor River overall we
7:11 have spent
7:15 more than 1 billion Singapore dollars on
7:20 water projects in Singapore and this has
7:23 helped not only peel these water works
7:26 but your horse own waterworks which are
7:28 also abstracting water from the same
7:33 river in fact members would also recall
7:37 that the lingua reservoir dropped the
7:40 water level dropped to a historic low of
7:45 20 percent in October 20 2016 because
7:48 there was a drought and we needed to use
7:50 that water in order to supply the
7:54 downstream water treatment plants and in
7:56 periods of dry weather and just by
8:00 coincidence johor is experiencing period
8:02 a period of dry weather now that's why
8:04 they have been fires and that's why I
8:08 mean the smell of burning material in
8:10 Singapore in recent days in this period
8:14 of dry weather Singapore continues to
8:18 provide Johor with treated water upon
8:20 their request and we do so out of
8:23 goodwill without prejudice or legal
8:26 rights under the water agreement
8:30 we are permanent neighbors and we want
8:33 to be good neighbors and we have never
8:36 shied away from dealing with difficult
8:39 bilateral issues and this is why Prime
8:41 Minister Enda me propose that of the
8:44 Mohave when they met in November 2018
8:47 that both attorney generals of Singapore
8:51 and Malaysia would meet to better
8:53 understand each other's positions on
8:55 whether Malaysia still had the right to
8:58 review the price of water under the 62
9:01 water agreement the Attorney General's
9:04 actually did meet in December 2018
9:06 unfortunately their discussions were
9:09 overshadowed by the Jehova report limits
9:11 in the Selita instrument landing system
9:14 procedures issues issues that we are now
9:18 trying to resolve nevertheless the two
9:21 Attorney General's will continue their
9:24 discussions in due time
9:30 since separation in 1965 Singapore has
9:34 chosen a different and unique
9:38 fundamental philosophy of governance and
9:40 quite frankly we've taken a different
9:43 path of development Singapore has no
9:46 natural resources we're even short of
9:50 water but Singaporeans have long
9:53 internalized that no one owes us a
9:57 living we have provided a framework
9:59 where all our citizens strive to do our
10:04 best and achieve our potential by dint
10:07 of our efforts we take a zero-tolerance
10:11 policy towards corruption our government
10:13 plans and invests for the long term as
10:15 exemplified by this budget that were
10:20 debating right now we honor and fulfill
10:23 our international agreements and
10:25 commitments as a result of that
10:27 businesses have the confidence to invest
10:30 and grow in Singapore and we make sure
10:33 as you all know right now budget that we
10:36 invest in infrastructure ahead of time
10:40 so on that note I will let members of
10:41 the house and fellow Singaporeans
10:46 outside decide for yourself whether we
10:51 have been fair or to quote dr. mahat
10:53 here whether we have been morally wrong
