Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad continued today his push for the ‘crooked bridge’ between Johor and Singapore to be revived by pointing to India’s own curved bridge in Mumbai.
Having spent his holiday in India, he mused on his blog “whether the Mumbaians protested about being curved and not straight.”
He also described its seemingly simple construction and linked to an online article which gave more details on how the bridge was built.
His sarcastic dig appears to be directed at current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who has so far refused to revive the project that was first mooted by Dr Mahathir when he prime minister in the 1990s but subsequently ditched by his successor Tun Abdullah Badawi.
Dr Mahathir, who still wields a huge influence on Umno, which leads the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, made his ire towards Abdullah very public and has continued to harangue Najib over the construction of the bridge.
But Najib, who is keen to repair bilateral ties with the island republic, has been reluctant to discuss the proposal which was received frostily by Singapore’s government when first mooted.
The prime minister has instead preferred to discuss other potential solutions such as a third bridge with Malaysia’s southern neighbours.
The proposal to build a bridge to replace the 87-year-old Johor Causeway was justified by Dr Mahathir to ease traffic congestion between Johor Baru and Singapore and facilitate the free flow of water in the Tebrau Straits in addition to allowing ships heading to East Asia to bypass Singapore.
But as of July last year, the Najib administration has no intentions of reviving the crooked bridge project proposed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to replace the Johor Causeway, according to Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s department said the government will stick to the decision reached during Abdullah’s administration.
“The crooked bridge will not be built. There have been no talks to revive the project,” Nazri had told The Malaysian Insider.
The issue has since gone cold since although Najib is said to have faced pressure from Johor Umno leaders to revive the crooked bridge project to replace the Causeway.
Malaysian Insider
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