Local media absorbed by land reclamation issue

Even KL offer on bilateral issues to visiting DPM Lee can't sway focus

By Leslie Lau
IN KUALA LUMPUR

THE Malaysian media are enthralled more by the land reclamation issue between their country and Singapore than by the fresh proposals offered on the unresolved package of bilateral matters, which include the sale of water.

In covering Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's visit here, local newspapers continue to be preoccupied with the reclamation works being carried out by Singapore and their allegedly negative effects.

Reporting on DPM Lee's meetings on Monday with Malaysian leaders, most newspapers here gave scant attention to Kuala Lumpur's new proposals on the package of bilateral issues.

The Berita Harian newspaper even published a front-page story claiming that reclamation works were responsible for the deaths of scores of endangered dugong mammals.

For weeks, newspapers here have been publishing stories raising concerns that Singapore's reclamation activities are affecting the ecology and water level of the Johor Straits.

A banner headline in yesterday's Star, the country's best-selling and most influential English-language newspaper, read: 'Show Proof. Singapore to go on reclaiming land until Malaysia's claims verified.'

While the daily reported on DPM Lee's assurance that Singapore would study Malaysia's concerns on the matter, it played up Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's remarks that the Republic 'maintains that it was Singapore's right to proceed with the project'.

DPM Lee yesterday also commented on the Malaysian media's reporting on the reclamation works issue.

'I said yesterday that if you have an issue, then send us a note. I read The New Straits Times today and they sharpen it. I never invited a protest note. I said send us a note and we will look at the matter,' he said to reporters after meeting Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar.

A front-page New Straits Times report said Singapore had asked Malaysia to send a protest note over the issue, but it did not quote anyone directly as saying so.

On the other hand, influential Malay-language Utusan Malaysia has hailed DPM Lee's visit as the perfect opportunity to resolve the dispute over the reclamation works.

'We understand Singapore wants to reclaim land for economic reasons but it is unfair not to take into account the consequences on its neighbour,' columnist Awang Sulung wrote in the newspaper's editorial yesterday.