SINGAPORE (Mar 18): “Tomorrow we #schoolstrike for our future. And we will continue to do so for as long as it takes.” — Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish founder of the Youth Strike for Climate movement. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on March 14, just one day before the biggest day yet of the strikes.

Singapore, Malaysia suspend overlapping port limits

Singapore and Malaysia have agreed to suspend their current overlapping port limits with immediate effect and will continue to seek an amicable solution to the territorial dispute that began late last year.

In a joint statement, both foreign ministers agreed that their respective countries would apply the port limits in effect prior to Oct 25 and Dec 6, 2018.

Malaysia had, on Oct 25, gazetted an extension to Johor Baru port limits beyond territorial claims and anchored government vessels in the area; Singapore on Dec 6 extended its port limits to the extent of its territorial waters in response. The tit-for-tat was brought to a head following a collision on Feb 9 between a Greek vessel and a Malaysian government vessel that had been anchored in the disputed waters.

Four other recommendations include not to authorise and to suspend all commercial activities in the area; not anchor government vessels in the area; and for Malaysian and Singaporean vessels to operate in the area in accordance with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The recommendations were necessary to “de-escalate the situation on the ground, and pave the way for maritime boundary delimitation of the area”, the statement added.

It is not all water under the bridge between Singapore and Malaysia, as the latter’s foreign minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, has fired off a salvo in the latest round in the war of words over the 1962 water deals between the two countries.

On March 12, Saifuddin asserted that Singapore was “reckless” for claiming that Malaysia had not upheld its end of the water bargain in seeking to renegotiate the prices of raw water. Saifuddin was responding to comments from his Singapore counterpart, Vivian Balakrishnan, that Malaysia lost the right to review water prices after choosing not to do so in 1987.

Balakrishnan was responding to Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s comments that “a rich country (Singapore) [cannot be] buying water from poor countries at such an unreasonable price”.

Saifuddin also said Malaysia and Singapore agreed to discuss reviewing the agreement when Mahathir visited the Republic last November.

“First, he accused Malaysia of not respecting the 1962 agreement by saying we can no longer review it after 25 years,” Saifuddin said of Balakrishnan, according to Malaysian press reports. “So, I don’t understand what English is used by the Singaporean foreign minister to interpret it in such a manner.”

A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 14 says Singapore has always been prepared to settle disputes via appropriate international third-party dispute settlement procedures, on mutually agreed terms.

A spokesperson was reported to have said Singapore had also been clear and consistent in its position that Malaysia lost the right to review the price of water under the 1962 Water Agreement. No review of the price of water had taken place, the spokesman added.

Malaysian national carrier, Malaysia Airlines (MAB), may soon have its wings clipped. Since Beijing-bound flight MH370 vanished without a trace on March 8, 2014, the airline — already facing serious financial trouble — nosedived further into the red.

On March 12, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government would decide soon on the fate of MAB, whether to shut it down, sell or refinance the ailing company. This was largely also due to recent reports that Malaysia’s sovereign fund Khazanah had suffered more than RM6 billion ($2 billion) in losses, of which RM3 billion was attributed to MAB. The latter’s losses were despite having been injected with RM6 billion from Khazanah, the controlling shareholder, in 2014. The resignation of MAB CEO Peter Bellew in 2017 after only 18 months on the job was another blow to plans to revive the airlines.

The day after Mahathir’s remarks were made, however, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said MAB would not be sold off, adding that it was one of a few options that Mahathir had simply been proposing.

Trump’s ex-chief campaigner gets seven years’ jail, faces 16 new charges

US President Donald Trump’s former lobbyist and chief campaigner Paul Manafort has been sentenced to a total of more than seven years behind bars for his convictions on federal charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation.

A District of Columbia court on March 13 added 3½ years to a four-year sentence Manafort received in Virginia for tax and bank fraud.

Just minutes after Manafort received the second prison sentence for conspiracy and falsifying of business records, however, the state of New York charged him with 16 counts of felony, also in relation to falsifying business records.

Manafort, who previously served as a consultant for former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi and former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, worked for Trump’s election campaign for five months in 2016.

Johor toxic waste dumping case postponed

State prosecutors have delayed the charges against the alleged culprit of a toxic chemical waste dump that led to severe health hazards and school closures in Johor, citing the need for more detailed investigation papers.

The man, who is to be charged under Section 34B of the Environmental Quality Act 1974, is accused of illegally dumping chemicals into Sungai Kim Kim in Pasir Gudang, which flows into the Straits of Johor near Pulau Ubin.

According to reports, almost 1,000 people, many of them students, had to seek medical treatment and have been warded in hospital after inhaling the toxic fumes emanating from the waste. The Malaysian Education Ministry has also closed 111 schools indefinitely because of the contamination.

On March 13, Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin said the culprit would be charged on March 14.

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