MUHYIDDIN SPOKE THE TRUTH, SAYS MAHATHIR

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 (Bernama) -- Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad
has admitted that he had persuaded Muhyiddin Yassin to supply water to Singapore
when the latter was the southern state of Johor chief minister.

"Muhyiddin spoke the truth about my persuading him to supply water to
Singapore but Lee Kuan Yew did not threaten to go to war if we did not supply
water. If he had done that, I think I would have stopped any further supply," Dr
Mahathir said in an article posted in his blog Wednesday.

Dr Mahathir was commenting on Muhyiddin's statement on Aug 19 that he (Dr
Mahathir) had summoned him to attend a meeting with the visiting Singapore prime
minister then, Lee Kuan Yew, over gas pipeline and water supply issues in Kuala
Lumpur.

Muhyiddin had said that during the meeting between Dr Mahathir, the then
finance minister Daim Zainuddin, Lee and himself, Lee had pressed for adequate
water supply to the republic from Johor.

"Lee said Singapore was ready to go to war if Malaysia did not want to
supply enough water and expressed his regret over the stalled water supply
project from Sungai Lingu in Johor.

"I said we did not have the money and Lee said Singapore was willing to bear
the cost and, when completed, the assets will be owned by Malaysia, so Singapore
had merely footed the bill," said Muhyiddin.

Muhyiddin said this at a talk in northern Bukit Mertajam, during the
campaign in a state by-election to clarify allegations by the opposition that he
(Muhyiddin) had sold a piece of land to Singapore in connection with the water
treatment plant in Sungai Lingu, Johor.

Dr Mahathir said in his article he did not know about the sale of land to
Singapore but as it was agreed that a treatment plant be built by Singapore in
Johor, land would have to be made available.

"We were at that time trying to be friendly with Singapore in order to solve
several problems. Although raw water would be supplied at 3 sen per 1,000
gallons, the understanding was that in future only treated water would be
supplied when our treatment plants would be ready.

"We would also not buy any more treated water from Singapore at 50 sen
(US$0.14) per thousand gallons when our new treatment plant in Johor is ready.

"When we no longer needed to buy treated water from Singapore we could raise
the price of raw water to Singapore without Singapore being able to raise the
price of treated water to us.

"However, when we concluded the water supply agreement, Singapore raised a
lot of issues regarding our railway land, the CIQ (Customs, Immigration and
Quarantine) at Tanjong Pagar, training flights by Singapore warplanes over
Malaysia and the Central Provident Fund.

"At that stage, I realised that being friendly with Singapore did not pay,"
Dr M ahathir added.
-- BERNAMA