Malaysia urges Singapore to put aside short-term benefits

MALAYSIA and Singapore must put aside short-term benefits and focus on long-term interests to improve often pricky bilateral relations, a minister said here June 24.

"Preoccupation with current domestic issues will only jeopardise bilateral ties in the long-term," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was reported as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

Syed Hamid urged both sides to be frank and transparent in their efforts to resolve bilateral disputes such as long-term water supply to Singapore, and railway customs and immigration procedures.

He also told the Singapore media not to meddle in the domestic affairs of other countries.

"It is best that Singapore newspapers don't do the work for other countries. It suffice to just look after their own country," he said, alluding to a Singapore Business Times' editorial which criticised Malaysia's leaders and called for a new team to run the country.

Syed Hamid, a former defence minister who was appointed to the post during a cabinet reshuffle in January, said he would visit Singapore next month as part of a customary familiarisation tour.

Bilateral relations have often been touchy since Singapore and Malaysia separated in 1965.

Apart from the water and railway issues, there is another festering disagreement over the fate of more than two billion US dollars' worth of frozen shares in Malaysian companies held mostly by Singapore investors.