The Untold story of the Crooked Bridge: Mahathir’s unreasonable dendam
LSS Report
In his entire 22 years as Prime Minister, Mahathir had never hidden his distaste and hatred for Singapore.
Conflicts and heated arguments between the two countries never stopped and was a recurring issue whenever domestic politics needed a bogeyman.
But the crooked bridge was supposed to be the one final revenge for Mahathir over a humiliation so great that he could never live down or forget.
In 2003, in one of his last acts just before ending his 22-year tenure as PM, Tun Dr Mahathir announced that Malaysia would go ahead and build a crooked bridge.
The other last act before leaving power was when Mahathir mysteriously and very quietly directly awarding a lucrative sports betting license worth billions to his friend for just RM25m – but that’s another story.
The failure of his successor Abdullah Badawi to push ahead with replacing the Causeway led Dr Mahathir to viciously attack him in 2006. The move, observers say, eventually pushed Tun Abdullah to resign in 2009.
The still influential Dr Mahathir now claims that Datuk Seri Najib Razak also failed to keep his promise to build the crooked bridge, and has asked Najib to step down.
In a TV interview in April 2015, Najib disclosed that this was one of the chief reasons why relationships between both of them broke down leading to Najib not speaking to Mahathir for 6 months.
“He (Dr Mahathir) had two things he wanted me to do. He wanted me to do away with BR1M and the Johor crooked bridge,” Najib said during a televised interview on TV3.
“I respect Tun, just like I respect all the people,” he added.
“I gave my views on these issues. I see it as discussions between two individuals… It is quite healthy to have a difference in opinion, but in the end, I still have to be accountable to the rakyat and the party.
“Most of these issues were brought to Cabinet and Cabinet will decide on it,” Najib
In response Tun Mahathir replied in his own interview that Najib broke his promise to build ‘crooked bridge’
“Not even one of the things that I had expected would be done, after I stepped down, has been done.”
“Najib still continues to do whatever he wants to do and I feel things (that he’s doing) are not right.” said Mahathir.
But why did Mr Najib not proceed with the crooked bridge?
Mr Najib and his Singaporean counterpart Mr Lee Hsien Loong had agreed instead to building a third link between Johor and Singapore. According to Dr Mahathir, Mr Najib told him that Malaysia could not proceed with the crooked bridge as there was an agreement not to touch the Causeway unless both sides agreed.
Mahathir had disclosed that Najib had claimed, during a one on one meeting between them after dinner one day, that there was an agreement between both countries on the causeway and that meant the crooked bridge could not be built unless both sides agreed.
“I asked him, ‘show me the Agreement’,” said Mahathir, implying that there was no such Agreement and that Najib had lied. “Are we an independent nation or a colony of Singapore?’, I asked him.” said Mahathir.
It is thus clear that before Mahathir started his attacks on Najib and wanted him removed for all sorts of reasons, this Crooked bridge was the main reason for Mahathir’s anger.
But why does Dr Mahathir want the dang crooked bridge so much?
It boils down to Mahathir’s personal humiliation, hatred and anger.
If you examine the designs of the crooked bridge, Mahathir had wanted to use the crooked bridge to stop the water pipelines connecting Singapore to Malaysia which then then carried 50% of Singapore’s life-giving water. Let the ramifications of that sink in while you think about it from Singapore’s perspective and why they would refuse to build the crooked bridge.
It was really Mahathir’s way of punishing Singapore.
Now, exactly what gives? To answer that, we need to reach further back into history. Specifically, the years of 1997 and 1998 and the Asian Financial Crisis.
The then-prime minister was in a quandary. He had sacked his deputy, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and to make matters worse, the country was experiencing a financial crisis unlike any other before.
Currency speculators had devalued the Malaysian ringgit to a fraction of its previous value. Attempts by BNM to prop up the ringgit’s value had been expensive and ultimately futile. Malaysia was virtually bankrupt.
There was no more money left due to Mahathir and Anwar’s mismanagement of the economy during the 1990s.
With metaphorical hat in hand, Dr Mahathir made a visit to Singapore to meet with PM Goh Chok Tong.
Although unreported in the Malaysian media, Singapore’s media nevertheless broke the news that Dr Mahathir had asked Singapore for a USD5 billion loan, as Malaysia was in dire straits financially.
If you don’t believe me, have a look at this November 2008 video of Mahathir asking Singapore for financial help on live TV – which of course was never reported in Malaysia.
