Malaysian PM offers a new logical bridge design to resolve a 'causeway row' and smooth relations with Singapore Mention the word 'causeway' and heads will turn in both Malaysia and Singapore. For Singaporeans, most of whom are Chinese, it evokes fond memories of a colonial era when the causeway linking the island with the Malay southern mainland was the bridge home to relatives. But to Malays, still smarting from 'losing' Singapore, first to the British and then the Chinese, that the causeway lingers with impunity into modern times is intolerable. They want it demolished. When the 1,056-metre causeway was completed in 1924, it rendered the Johore Strait impassable to shipping. The halfway point on the causeway has marked the border since Singapore left Malaysia in 1965. As late as last month Ghani Othman, the chief minister of Johore state, was blaming the British colonial government for building the causeway. He charged that the design favoured Singapore at Malaysia's expense. 'The British then were full of tricks so they completely blocked off the flow of water in the Johore Strait with a causeway. Vessels could not pass through and the water could not flow through,' he said. 'Ships had to go around Singapore and berth there and not in Johore ... the ploy has made Singapore what it is today. Johore has lost out because of the causeway,' he told an audience of Malay grass-roots leaders. 'We are all for demolishing the causeway and replacing it with a suspended bridge that allows the passage of ships and the current.' The idea is not new. Malaysia's former leader, Mahathir Mohamad, three years ago proposed replacing the causeway with a suspension bridge, complete with domes and Islamic minarets. Singapore, offended by his browbeating, rubbished the idea. Dr Mahathir pressed the issue arguing, with an eye to Malay emotions, that the waters of the Johore Strait separated so long ago must be reunited. 'We have to construct a crooked bridge ... that's our fate,' he said a year later. 'We can't get the co-operation from people, so we have to accept our own way to resolve the problem.' With Singapore refusing to budge, Dr Mahathir went ahead and ordered half an elevated bridge to be built, at a cost of M$1.3 billion ($2.65 billion). It was to run only on the Malaysian side of the causeway, allowing free passage of ships and currents. But with such a short distance between the two sides, joining the suspension bridge to the low-lying causeway would create a dangerous incline, one impossible for heavy trucks to accommodate. The answer was to extend the bridge out, creating a 1.4km gently dropping curve. Critics promptly slammed the 'crooked' half-bridge as hare-brained, a symbol of all that was wrong and twisted with Dr Mahathir's methods and Malaysia's relations with Singapore. 'It was a ridiculous, irrational and crazy idea ... its very concept offended common sense,' said parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang. Nevertheless, when Dr Mahathir retired in November 2003, piling work was under way. Thankfully, a pragmatic approach prevailed a week ago when Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi met Singapore's former leader, Goh Chok Tong, now special envoy. With calming words and warm embraces all round, Mr Abdullah presented Mr Goh with a new design and invited Singapore to take part in the project. 'It is a straight bridge that we are proposing to Singapore and hopefully straighten our relationship.' he told Mr Goh. Months earlier he had halted piling works. 'We are ready to have a look at the new bridge design to see how we can have balanced benefits that can allow the bridge to proceed.' In the new design, a suspension bridge running the entire distance would be built close to the causeway. It would be ready in three years whereupon Malaysia is hoping to demolish the causeway. The bridge would supplement an existing low-slung bridge linking the town of Tanjong Kupang in Johore with Tuas in Singapore. The bridge aside, the two nations are working towards reopening talks on such issues as the price of Malaysian water for Singapore, rival claims to a rocky islet, Singapore's use of Malaysian airspace and the future of its railway land inside Singapore. Analysts largely credit Mr Abdullah's non-confrontational style of politics for the warming ties. Where Dr Mahathir used Singapore as a distraction to rally the home crowd, Mr Abdullah has his eyes fixed firmly on investment dollars and tourists from Singapore. In the first six months of this year Singapore investment reached a record high of M$18.5 billion. Malaysians in turn invested M$11.1 billion, a three-year high. 'We value the relationship [with Singapore], we want it to be strong and we want it to be friendly and we want the relationship to benefit the people of both Malaysia and Singapore,' Mr Abdullah said after the meeting. 'We must wear new caps to resolve the old issues.' The opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia, has mounted a campaign against Mr Abdullah for his 'overenthusiastic attitude' to Singapore. 'Our sovereignty is not for sale,' the party said.