2 - Intensifying Official Visits

Summary

On becoming Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi made a visit to Singapore in October 2003 as part of the overall courtesy visits to neighbouring countries in the ASEAN region. Abdullah put forth his view on howbilateral ties could be improved. He said, “We can make things move forward by getting some things resolved rather than [putting] everything […] in that one package and nothing [gets] resolved…so we have to pluck some low-hanging fruits before the musang (civet cat) comes and takes them away”. Both PM Goh Chok Tong and DPM Lee Hsien Loong went along with Abdullah's approach and the negotiation process was back on track. When Lee Hsien Loong became Prime Minister, he also made the customary courtesy visit to Malaysia in October 2004. The visits exchanged at the Prime Ministerial level were soon followed by a series of visits by other leaders of both countries. As mentioned earlier, in his capacity as Senior Minister, two visits to Kuala Lumpur were made by Goh Chok Tong in December 2004 and March 2005 to have talks with Abdullah on outstanding issues.

The Human Resources Minister of Malaysia, Fong Chan Onn, made an official visit to Singapore in August 2004 to meet with his Singapore counterpart, Ng Eng Hen. His visit was aimed at sharing views and building ties. They discussed labour issues affecting both countries, particularly the reliance on foreign labour. He mentioned that Malaysia would like to cap the foreign working population at the current level of about 10 per cent of its total workforce, adding that his staff would study how Singapore managed the foreign labour issues.

The Education Minister of Malaysia, Hishamuddin Hussein Onn, visited Singapore on 13 December 2004 to attend the Singapore- Malaysia forum and, more importantly, to meet with his Singapore counterpart, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. The outcome of their talks was the establishment of a programme to bring students from secondary school level and upward to engage in joint activities. Schools from the two countries would pair themselves and initiate joint activities outside the classroom, in areas ranging from adventure camps to information technology. The following day saw the Singapore Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts, Lee Boon Yang, visitingKuala Lumpur to have talks with Abdul Kadir Shaikh Fadzir, the Malaysian Minister for Information.