Singapore MP says water deal fair as Malaysia sells what ‘falls from the sky’

Updated 8 years ago · Published on 26 Jun 2018 6:13PM · 7 Comments

Raw water costs Malaysia nothing because 'sky juice' is free, says Singapore lawmaker. – EPA pic, June 26, 2018.

A SINGAPOREAN member of Parliament has dismissed Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s accusation that Malaysia is paying too much for treated water from Singapore, saying the raw water supplied by Putrajaya costs nothing as it “falls from the sky”.

In a Facebook post today, Lee Yi Shyan said “Malaysia does nothing” but still makes money out of the existing water agreement between the two countries.

Under the agreement, Malaysia sells Singapore 250 million gallons of raw water daily at three sen per 1,000 gallons and buys back treated water at 50 sen per 1,000 gallons.

Lee said it cost Singapore RM2.40 per 1000 gallons to treat the water, which meant the republic was actually giving Malaysia a subsidy of “RM1.90 per 1,000 gallons”.

He said as Malaysia sold treated water back to its citizens at  M3.60 per 1000 gallons, it “does nothing and makes RM3.10 per 1000 gallons”.

Lee’s post elicited criticism from Roger Koh for having “a lot, a lot, a lot of flaws”.

The calculations “deftly avoid the issue of the sheer quantity of water – an increasingly scarcer commodity – sold to Singapore at rock bottom prices, exclusively for Singapore consumption,” wrote another user Woon Chet Choon.

“We also blessed with much sky juice, why then do we not progress to (a) stage where we do not have to buy free sky juice?” wrote user Winnie Victoria Woon.

Lee joins an outcry in the republic following Dr Mahathir’s remarks that the 1962 agreement which expires in 2061 was “too costly” to Malaysia and “manifestly ridiculous”.

Water is among issues with Singapore “that we need to settle”, Dr Mahathir had told Bloomberg in an interview last week

“We will sit down and talk with them, like civilised people.”

During his first tenure as prime minister, the water agreement was a source of heightened tension between the two countries. Dr Mahathir once threatened to turn off the tap when negotiations hit a rough patch; in response, then-Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew said he was prepared to send troops to Malaysia.

Singapore’s former ambassador-at-large Bilahari Kausikan wrote on Facebook yesterday that the tiny nation-state would not “allow Malaysia to change the terms of solemn international agreements anytime the terms of the agreement become inconvenient to them”.

“All this is out of Dr M’s standard playbook. Singaporeans should not be deceived. Good neighbourliness ought to be a two-way street,” Bilahari said. – June 26, 2018.

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Comments

  • Singapore had a swimming days when Najib was P.M. Infact they caught NIJIB BY HIS BALLS .....TUN SHOULD ALSO LOOK INTO THE 400 ACRE KERETA API LAND MELAYU.......RAILWAY JEWELS OF A CROWN LAND.

    Posted 8 years ago by Mohanarajan murugeson · Reply

  • Yeah Right! since it falls from the sky, why not don't buy from us and collect it yourself!

    Posted 8 years ago by Vibnwis wis · Reply

    • Ditto!

      Posted 8 years ago by JK Unrowling · Reply

  • At the core of this argument it's about entitlement. Singapore think life is unfair and have to.live with it. Mahathir's Malaysia think if life is unfair, someone owes them.

    Posted 8 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply

  • Land is a gift from mother earth too. Why is it so expensive in Singapore?

    Posted 8 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • I am flabbergasted by Lee's uneducated comments. Water falling from the sky is not free for the taking but belongs to the environment. It goes to recharge groundwater and sustains streams and rivers. Building a dam across a river and diverting the water for human use entails environmental damage. Singapore has to pay a fair price for this resource. The 1962 Agreement locked in the price for 100 years without being indexed to inflation. Further, after the common currency between the two nations ended, the price was denominated in Malaysian currency which means that it's now even cheaper for Singapore. Unfair contracts cannot be upheld.

    Posted 8 years ago by Ken Gan · Reply

  • They too have MPs who talk rubbish.

    Posted 8 years ago by Henry Mancini Jr · Reply