Mahathir revives Singapore water issue

Bloomberg

Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad has revived the muscular foreign policy that characterised his first stint in power, seeking to renegotiate a longstanding water supply agreement with Singapore and taking shots at both the US and China.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television, the 92-year-old Mahathir criticised a 1962 water supply deal with Singapore as “too costly,” adding to tensions after he announced plans to cancel a multibillion-dollar high-speed rail project that would’ve connected Kuala Lumpur to the city-state.
Water is among issues with Singapore “that we need to settle,” Mahathir said at his office in Kuala Lumpur.
“We will sit down and talk with them, like civilised people.”
Breaking from his predecessor Najib Razak’s more pragmatic diplomacy, Mahathir also said he’s reviewing Chinese investments and called US President Donald Trump “mercurial.” Neither country should vie to become the region’s leading superpower, he said.
Mahathir’s willingness to push back against the world’s biggest economic powers contrasts with Najib, who golfed and dined with US presidents and dubbed himself a “true friend” of China. His comments recall his run in power from 1981 to 2003, when he bickered with Singapore on water and land issues, tussled with the International Monetary Fund and dubbed billionaire US financier George Soros a “moron” for his role in the ringgit’s drop.
“Dr Mahathir is simply posturing that he is not a pushover like his predecessor,” Oh Ei Sun, principal adviser at Pacific Research Center, a research group based in Malaysia, said. “Bilateral relations between the two countries will not sour, but will be businesslike during his term,” he said.

Water Fight
Singapore perhaps has the most at stake. The country has relied on neighbouring Malaysia for nearly half of its water needs through water agreements,
the first of which dates back
to 1927.
The remaining 1962 accord, which expires in 2061, gives Singapore 250 million gallons of raw water daily at 3 sen per 1,000 gallons, and Malaysia buys back a portion of that at12 cents per 1,000 gallons.
Malaysia is strategically placed on Strait of Malacca, through which about 40 percent of global trade flows.
That makes it a prime destination for China’s Belt and
Road Initiative that aims to finance hundreds of billions of dollars worth of infrastructure in emerging markets.