Mahathir’s Visit To Jakarta Says A Lot About The State Of Singapore-Malaysia Relations This piece is part of MS Speaks, a segment in which MS News reporters share their honest views on current affairs and trending topics. It wasn’t as momentous as the recent Trump-Kim Summit, but this week’s meeting between Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Indonesian President Joko Widodo was certainly significant. Mr Widodo rolled out the red carpet for Dr Mahathir, who was making his maiden foreign trip since re-election in May. The two statesmen gave a joint press conference, where they exchanged platitudes and well-wishes for one another. But two words Dr Mahathir said caught our eye. Explaining why he had chosen to visit Indonesia first, the straight-talking leader said it was an easy choice, since Indonesia was Malaysia’s “closest neighbour”. This comes barely two months after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong commented that Singapore was Malaysia’s closest neighbour. So who’s actually closer? Economically, it’s us While trade between Singapore and Malaysia has been growing at a healthy pace, the same can’t be said of Indonesia and Malaysia. According to GlobeAsia, bilateral trade between our two neighbours actually dipped between 2012 and 2016 – by nearly US$10 billion. […]
6 years ago
