| Associated
Press January 31, 2007 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia MALAYSIA'S deputy leader has disputed a local politician's claim that massive land reclamation by Singapore near the Malaysian mainland caused floods in southern Johor state recently, news reports said Thursday. "People are fond of making all kinds of accusations. This ought to be substantiated," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times, adding that it would be preposterous to point fingers without proper technical studies. On Tuesday, Johor Chief Minister Abdul Ghani Othman told reporters that Singapore's reclamation on Tekong island, opposite the mouth of Malaysia's Johor River, caused the flooding in December and January that left 17 people dead and forced the evacuation of about 100,000 people. Abdul Ghani, a senior member of Najib's ruling party, said the reclamation led to a narrowing of the mouth of the Johor River, slowing the discharge of excess rain water into the Johor Straits, Othman said. In an apparent effort to contain the diplomatic fallout from Abdul Ghani's comments, Najib said he believes "excessive rain over a 24-hour period in some areas, which is unusual, may have contributed to the floods," the Times reported. Najib's aides could not be immediately contacted to confirm his comments, which will help soothe relations between Singapore and Malaysia, which have long been uneasy. On Wednesday, Singapore's Ministry of National Development dismissed Abdul Ghani's comments as "unfounded." It noted that a study by Malaysia in 2002 confirmed that Singapore's land reclamation caused "no appreciable changes to the water levels within the Straits of Johor" and no increase in flooding. Malaysia's government is facing a 1.5 billion ringgit (US$430 million; €330 million) bill for helping the flood victims and repairing roads and schools. Residents called the deluges the worst in recent memory, with floodwaters as high as four meters (13 feet) cutting off access to many towns and villages. Land-scarce Singapore, a city-state of 4 million people, started reclaiming land in 2002 along the eastern and western parts of the Johor Straits near the Malaysian mainland. Malaysia complained this would narrow the shipping lanes around the Johor Straits. After a plea for international arbitration by Malaysia, both countries set up independent commissions to study the impact of the reclamation. |
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