Yushui Village in Lijiang, Yunnan, with snow mountain backdrop and cascading waterfalls.
5/12/2006
mahathir's half truth on the crooked bridge
Mahathir quoted a letter by Choktong claiming that Choktong had agreed to the bridge and that Badawi's govt was wrong to give up the bridge idea. In that letter, it gives the impression that Choktong had compromise Singapore's position on the bridge and Mahathir has a point to carry on with the bridge.
But actually Mahathir was speaking half truth or selective truth. He did not tell the whole truth that Choktong sent him another letter to retracted what he had said in his earlier letter.
The New Straits Times article below clearly explained what happened.
A LETTER from former Singapore prime minister Goh Chok Tong to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in April 2002 agreeing to Malaysia’s proposal to build a half-bridge across the Johor Strait was rendered void by another letter later that year.
Parliamentary secretary to the Foreign Affairs Ministry Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the initial discussions between Goh and Dr Mahathir were on a package deal. "It involved issues such as raw water and land," Ahmad said. But when further developments rendered it difficult to continue discussions on the package deal, Dr Mahathir wrote to Goh in October that year to say that no resolution could be reached on the bridge issue.
A week later, Goh replied saying that if this were the case, his first letter would have to be ignored as it was written with the whole package in mind.
Ahmad was replying to Senator Datuk Syed Ali Syed Abbas Alhabshee on why Malaysia did not hold Singapore to Goh’s first letter.
Well since now building the half bridge will cost less than not building it,I suggest Badawai should go on with it. The half bridge would be a perfect symbol of the Mahathir's legacy and remind the generations of malaysian that we have produced a very crooked pm.
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