The subject of water - namely, the stuff Malaysia sells to Singapore - has often irritated nerves on both sides of the Straits of Johor.
The irritant is the price Singapore pays Malaysia for its water. The city-state currently pays three sen (6 HK cents) for every 4,540 litres of untreated water. For a comparison, Hong Kong pays China HK$16 for the same amount.
So, Malaysia wants a fairer price. But Singapore says its neighbour has lost the right for a price review because it failed to do so in 1986 and 1987 - 25 years after the agreements were signed. They were drafted during the heady days when then Malaya and Singapore - together with Sarawak and Sabah on the island of Borneo - were moving towards forming the Federation of Malaysia on September 16, 1963. Singapore broke away from the short-lived federation on August 9, 1965.
Efforts to settle the dispute have failed, including the last meeting, in October. In March this year, the Singaporean government published a book, Water Talks? If Only It Could, which claimed Malaysia had lost the right to review the price of water; that Malaysia had continually shifted the goal posts; and that Singapore loses money by subsidising the price of treated water it sells to Malaysia.
Malaysia went on the offensive this week, placing full-page advertisements in local newspapers and The Asian Wall Street Journal to tell the 'Malaysian side of the story'. The government rarely uses media advertisements, but the National Economic Action Council (NEAC), linked to the prime minister's office, decided ads would strike hard at the core of the matter. The tone so far has been stinging.
One advertisement said Singapore made US$174.34 million in profits from the raw water supplied by Malaysia in 2001, but it only paid Malaysia US$629,000 for that water. 'Malaysia gets nothing. Singapore gets everything,' the ad complained. Another claimed, 'Developing Malaysia subsidises affluent Singapore by more than 18 times.'