crooked bridge: a defence perspective

Not only is the bridge a crucial deciding factor of Johor’s future, other analysts believe there’s a defence reason for Malaysia, too. Since former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew declaring years ago that in an event of Malaysia’s unilateral cut-off of crucial water supplies to Singapore, Singaporean tanks would move in to defend the Republic’s survival.He said If that happened, he would not wait for United Nations to intervene because by then it would be too late. Unlike the Causeway, the new replacing link will have a drawbridge that can be raised at intervals to allow ships to pass under. So even a crooked half-bridge would have a defence value for Malaysia. A raised drawbridge could stop the Singaporean tanks from crossing into Johor in the unlikely event of war. above posted by seah chiangnee in littlespeck.com we have been discussing all the economic, social and political aspects of the crooked bridge. now there is this defence angle to look at. chiangnee's view is that the malaysians are concerned that in the event of a war, the most immediate concern of the malaysians is the tanks rolling across the causeway. sounds reasonable after quoting what lky said. as for the issue of a war between the two nations, it is a possibility that both countries would avoid and would not attempt to get into. the destruction and loss of lives will be too costly for any decent thinking leader to even contemplate. war is not an option unless they are prepared to get into a brawl that will last a few generations. both will be destroyed in the process. just tension alone is disruptive enough to bankrupt the two countries. for a small country like singapore, it can never afford a war with anyone. it can only work to prevent war. assuming that it happens, and assuming that the tanks rolled across and occupied the state of johore, what next? the state of hostility will be perpetual. and there is also the element of the indonesians. there is no way for singapore to flirt with such a thought unless it is provoked, like chen shui bian provoking china through a declaration of independence. what can malaysia do to force singapore into a hobson's choice? is there a reason for malaysia to fear tanks rolling across the causeway? only one. and that is the cutting off of water supply by whatever means or pretext. do the malaysians have any such schemes up their sleeves to worry about provoking singapore to make a death plunge? now that is a good question to ponder over.