Singapore and Malaysia will forever be neighbours, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong wrote on Facebook.

Cost-benefits of more bridges between Singapore & Malaysia should be studied

In a Facebook post on Thursday, March 21, Goh said both countries should start building more "political, goodwill bridges", and that the cost-benefits of more bridges between Singapore and Malaysia should be studied.

In response to Mahathir

He was referring to comments made by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad at the Invest Malaysia 2019.

Mahathir said "at least three or four bridges" should be built to help with traffic flow between both countries.

But he claimed that Singapore does not want any more bridges, for some reason which he could not understand.

Previously, in August 2018, Mahathir said there is "already some plan" to build a third link.

However, a spokesperson from Singapore’s Ministry of Transport said in response to media queries that Singapore has not received “any official proposal or communications from Malaysia regarding a third link between Singapore and Malaysia".

Singapore and Malaysia should forge closer ties

Goh also said leaders, Members of Parliament and peoples from both sides of the Causeway should "start building more political, goodwill bridges", noting that Singaporeans and Malaysians have "grown increasingly apart since Separation".

He said he favours "closer and stronger links" between the two countries, in both the "physical and political" sense.

Mahathir's "crooked bridge" idea

Previously, during his first stint as prime minister between 1981 and 2003 during the Barisan Nasional administration, Mahathir mooted the idea of a "crooked bridge" between both countries.

The idea was dropped under Mahathir's successor, Abdullah Badawi.

However, Mahathir brought the idea of the "crooked bridge" back again after taking office in May 2018.

In October 2018, he stood by what he said before in 2003, that Malaysia could still build the "crooked bridge" on their side of the Causeway "anytime", without involving Singapore at all.

Top image by Joshua Lee