IN 2003, the Singapore government produced a 12-page pamphlet titled “Singapore-Malaysia water talks: What are the facts?”.

The booklet was a fuss-free, functional and, honestly, quite well-crafted explainer on the republic’s perspective behind the water disagreements between the two nations.

While I thought the little figurines depicting Malaysia as a blue man with a songkok were the highlights, the pamphlet more seriously reflected just how frustrated and stymied Singapore felt about Malaysia’s constant demands to review terms of the agreement.

Signed in September 1962, the water agreement between Singapore and the Federation of Malaya provides the republic the right to draw up to 250 million gallons of water per day from the Johor River until 2061 at 0.03 sen per 1,000 gallons.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently told Bloomberg that he plans to reopen talks to presumably raise this price, which lies at the heart of past tensions between the two countries.

When Pakatan Harapan took over the federal government, the speed in which the new administration started to unravel some of the contracts and agreements inked by the former government was both startling and refreshing.

Our new government pledged to review deals that were lopsided, or ones which either held dubiously little benefit to the country or needed to be looked into to boost the government’s deflated coffers.

It came as a small surprise to many that the water deal with Singapore fell into any of those categories, especially since water was such a troublesome issue between the two countries during Dr Mahathir’s first run as prime minister and was perhaps seen to be something better left untouched.

Many of us grew up in the years where the war of words between Dr Mahathir and the late Lee Kuan Yew sometimes threatened to build up to more than just a spat, just as most of us will famously remember Dr Mahathir’s threat to turn the taps off and Lee’s equally vociferous comeback of sending in troops as a response.

Even years after he retired, Dr Mahathir brought up the issue of the low price for which Malaysia was selling its water to Singapore.

“That is why negotiations are necessary from time to time,” Dr Mahathir had said in his 2013 blog post.  

“We should not allow ourselves to be short-changed over the next 57 years to 2060,” he said.

“Malaysia should learn to include exit clauses when entering into agreements.”

I have no doubt that Dr Mahathir is right, and I perhaps understand his seeming inability to “let go” of this issue with Singapore.

But the unpleasant fact is that there was no exit clause in the water deal we inked with Singapore in 1962, and we are bound by an ill-thought-of agreement which will subject us to the same rather unprofitable terms, for the next 43 years.

Singapore’s reaction to Dr Mahathir’s attempt at a second go at water talks has been, expectedly, one of great frustration.

And one really cannot blame them.

Just like treaties between sovereign nations are to be accorded the highest of respect and adhered to at all times, the water agreement is a legally binding contract between two consenting nations. Just because years later, one party wakes up to how lopsided the agreement has become doesn’t mean it has the right to demand a review on its terms.

There must be honour in an agreement, more so between two sovereign nations. If the terms of our water deal are no longer workable in this day and age, then it’s only fair to request, and expect, both parties return to the negotiation table.

Discussions on the water deal in the past have been far from civilised. Both parties have accused – and been accused of – high-handedness, arrogance and all-round lack of respect.

This time though, we have a chance to change that.

We must approach the negotiation table with less of the old Malaysia, and more of a new, grown-up Malaysia that is firm with its demands, while being respectfully aware of the rights of others.

If we expect Singapore to easily concede to our demands, especially when we have no legal basis to make them, there will be little reason for any other country to trust and respect agreements that our country enters into in the future.

The way we conduct ourselves in the impending talks with Singapore has to reflect a new Malaysia; one that believes in the rule of law, one that respects its negotiation partner, and one that expects nothing less. – July 2, 2018.

* Julia Yeow has been in journalism for two decades and counts it as her first love, despite enjoying brief stints as a lecturer, clown and salad maker. She is a strong believer in social justice, and holds that there is sometimes more truth in the greys, than the blacks and whites.