Malayan Railway Station in Singapore

Discussion in 'Chit-Chat' started by Loh, Jan 23, 2008.

  1. drifit

    drifit newbie

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    Singaporeans cannot afford to buy water. the past agreement already expired and Malaysia proposed to slightly increase price, Singapore is jumping high down protesting. the price is from 1970? if Singapore has the logical sense and money, why so jumpy about the increase? a cup of coffee during 1970, which is RM0.20, do you think i can pay that for now? :confused:
     
    #41 drifit, Jul 15, 2009
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2009
  2. taneepak

    taneepak Regular Member

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    But the Railway (with its immigration, customs, and quarantine control) and water plus the Bridge/Causeway, plus another issue on CPF of Malaysians were all bundled together and became the "poison" that soured relations between the two neighbours. Two great protagonists, one from each side, gave birth to this rather long and silly big quarrel. One is gone now but he is still capable of making noises. The younger generation carries no such baggage from the past. But today's younger generation is still a little of the new and a little of the old. After one or two more lifetimes, the people of the future will look back and see how silly (and also how smart in some areas) some of their past leaders were in some issues.
     
  3. Loh

    Loh Regular Member

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    Let's say we prefer to go by the rules. ;)

    I'm not sure what you meant by "the past agreement already expired ..." and you may have got your facts wrong. In any case the governments of both countries have settled the issue at that point in time when disagreement arose and please don't try to bring back the issues again. We are not in any better position to discuss them further. Leave it to the politicians. And as Oldhand has reiterated, we have completely gone off tangent from the original railway issue. :D
     
  4. Loh

    Loh Regular Member

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    Surely we don't want to be counted among them.

    History will decide the outcome and there is no guarantee that future generations will not make the same mistakes.

    When personalities are involved, each will want to outdo the other. And there will continue to be lots of seemingly 'trivial' issues that will occupy far too much time and attention. Politicians are a different breed it seems. :p
     
  5. taneepak

    taneepak Regular Member

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    Of course Singapore can afford to pay a much higher price for water. But that was not the issue as far as Singapore was concerned. Water from Malaysia was made to appear as a security threat to the survival of Singapore. To be fair to Singapore, no country in the world can be held to ransom. There were two water agreements signed in 1961 and in 1962 that gave Singapore water security over two periods after 1961 to 2011, from 2011 to 2061, and the last one 2061 to 2161. Malaysia could not get out of these contracts but then use the "price" weapon.
    Hong Kong faced the same situation before its reversion to China. Britain realized early that despite its claim that Hong Kong island was granted to Britain in perpetuity, it found out that the island could not be defended. All the Chinese had to do to bring the former British colony to its knees was simply to shut the taps. For a time the British did silly things like water rationing and desalination, but eventually realized it would be in the economic interest of Hong Kong long term to buy water from China. Actually Hong Kong is paying a much higher price from China than reported. To be assured of a guaranteed quantity supply of water, Hong Kong must buy from China a minimum quantity each year. In almost every year, it has to dump excess water into the sea because there is simply no place to store them. Singapore is smarter as it only buys from Malaysia what it pumps out and it runs the water pumping plants.
     
  6. juara

    juara Regular Member

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    That's the reason why the Kingdom of Jordan & Egypt has to make a treaty peace with Israel. Water.... and for Egypt another incentive is an aid from US
     
  7. aramistuscany

    aramistuscany Regular Member

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    Current classes in KTM

    Top to bottom:

    Premier Night Deluxe
    Premier Night Standard
    Superior Night
    Premier Class
    Superior Class
     

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  8. aramistuscany

    aramistuscany Regular Member

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    Economy Class. The Premier Night Standard would be a nice way to travel between KL and Singapore's Super Series events.
     

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  9. Loh

    Loh Regular Member

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    Light at end of tunnel over KTM’s Singapore land

    The Malaysian Insider
    Tuesday September 22 2009

    KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — The contentious bilateral talks over the Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) land in Singapore appears to have moved forward with a proposal to swap it for valuable land near the island state’s first casino in Marina South, instead of scattered pieces across the tiny republic.

    Government sources said Singapore has submitted a proposal to Wisma Putra last month for a joint-venture company that will develop the new piece of land. Malaysia will hold 60 per cent equity in the company while Singapore will hold the balance, both through their respective sovereign wealth funds.

    “The ball is now in Wisma Putra’s court,” a source told The Malaysian Insider.
    It is understood that Malaysia has already appointed private valuers to ascertain the exact land value of the site, which is in lieu of the 217 hectares that KTM now owns in Singapore.

    “Singapore claims the new site is in the heart of the most ‘happening’ place in the city, with massive new developments earmarked around the area,” he added.

    The site is near the Marina Bay Sands, which was due to open end 2009 but has now moved its opening launch to early 2010. It also overlooks the Singapore F1 race track comprising streets in the republic’s priciest commercial zones.

    The source said Wisma Putra is now mulling the proposal but foreign ministers from both neighbours are unlikely to meet anytime soon because of the on-going United Nations (UN) General Assembly sessions. It will mark Malaysia’s Datuk Anifah Aman’s debut in the UN.

    However, the Malaysia-Singapore Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) is scheduled to meet in mid-October and could discuss the proposal.

    The land swap has been contentious since the Malaysia-Singapore Points of Agreement (POA) was signed in 1990 over the issue of the future of the railway land. The POA was signed between former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and former Malaysian Finance Minister Tun Daim Zanuddin.
    Under the agreement, KTM was to vacate its historic station at Tanjong Pagar and move to Bukit Timah while all of KTM’s land between Bukit Timah and Tanjong Pagar would revert to Singapore. The land at Tanjong Pagar would be handed over to a private limited company for joint development — of which its equity would be split 60 per cent to Malaysia and 40 per cent to Singapore — as it is in the latest proposal
    .

    But the key contention was the interpretation of the agreement as Singapore insisted the agreement meant KTM had to move its terminal from Tanjong Pagar to Bukit Timah within five years of its construction, when the republic moved its railway immigration in August 1998.

    But Putrajaya said it would only be effective once it decided to move the station.

    The railway land was acquired under a 1918 colonial ordinance specifically for use by Malayan Railway (Keretapi Tanah Melayu or KTM) for a period of 999 years. That same ordinance limits the use of this land. The land, which the main railway station is situated on, is considered prime land.

    The 1990 POA states that the KTM railway station would be moved either to Bukit Timah first, or directly to Woodlands. In exchange, under the 1990 POA, three parcels of railway land — at Tanjong Pagar, Kranji, and Woodlands — would be jointly developed on a 60/40 basis with the Malaysian Government holding the larger share.

    However, three years later, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad expressed his displeasure with the POA as it failed to include a piece of railway land in Bukit Timah for joint development.

    In September 2001, both neighbours reached a comprehensive agreement with an understanding that the Malaysian immigration checkpoint on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore railway line will be moved from Tanjong Pagar to Kranji.

    Las Vegas casino chain Sands has committed to invest S$3.85 billion (RM9.43 billion) in the project in Marina South, not including the fixed S$1.2 billion cost of the 6,000,000-sq ft site itself, which by most estimates will make it the most expensive casino in the world.

    The total cost of the development is placed at S$8.0 billion. In addition to the casino, other key components of the plan are three hotel towers with 2,600 rooms and suites; a 200,000-sq ft arts and sciences museum; and a convention centre with 1,200,000-sq ft of space, capable of accommodating over 52,000 people.

    The resort, inspired by card decks, was designed by Moshe Safdie. The company has promised to create 10,400 jobs for the project, 75 per cent of which will be reserved for Singaporeans.

    Marina Bay Sands will feature three 55-storey hotel towers which were topped out in July 2009. The three towers will be connected with a 1 hectare sky terrace on the roof.


    A view of the Marina Bay Sands casino resort under construction and Singapore’s financial district at night. — Reuters pic

    KTM’s Bukit Timah railway station. — Wikipedia.org pic
     

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