1. Since I pointed out that Johor and Malaysia are losing billions of Ringgit selling raw water at 3 sen per 1000 gallon to Singapore, nothing has been done by the present Government to negotiate for a fairer price for the water.

2. All that happens following my exposure is for the supporters of the Government to question my failure to negotiate when I was Prime Minister.

3. Newspaper reports and I am sure Government records will show how I tried to negotiate for a better price of the water. Even during the short period I was the Seventh Prime Minister there are records of negotiations over water instructed by me. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dato Sri Saifuddin Abdullah and The Attorney General, Tommy Thomas can testify to this. I myself raised this issue when I met the Prime Minister of Singapore officially.

4. Lee Hsien Loong agreed that the matter should be discussed by officials of the two countries. But the Foreign Minister of Singapore, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan in the Parliament questioned the need to discuss the matter.

5. There was only one occasion when a Malaysian Deputy Minister explained in Parliament that the price issue could not be discussed because Singapore would raise the price of treated water bought by Johor.

6. I would like to point out that before I resigned the Federal Government had allocated funds for Johor to build its own filtration plant, so that we need not buy treated water from Singapore.

7. I cannot understand why the plant was not built. I don’t understand why Johor prefer to buy treated water from Singapore at 50 sen per 1000 gallons.

8. Yes, the Malaysian Prime Ministers want to have friendly relation with Singapore. But I don’t think Singapore would break relation with Malaysia merely because we want a fair price for our water, we want to make some profit selling raw water to that island.