Time to bring JB-Singapore RTS Link project to quicker realisation

THE meeting of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong with his Malaysian counterpart Muhyiddin Yassin today to restart the stalled Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link project cannot come soon enough.

The last time the top leaders of the two countries met in January 2018 to witness the original signing of the RTS deal, Najib Razak was the premier. Malaysia has had two new prime ministers since.

Mr Lee and Mr Muhyiddin will be at the Causeway to witness the signing of three agreements to get the project back on track. One will involve amendments to the RTS Link bilateral agreement while the other two pertain to setting up an operating company under a joint venture agreement between Singapore's SMRT Corporation and Malaysia's Prasarana Malaysia Berhad, and appointing this operating company as the RTS Link operator under a concession agreement between the two governments.

This comes after Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and his counterpart Hishammuddin Hussein met last week at the midpoint of the Causeway to discuss arrangements for a limited resumption of cross-border travel between Singapore and Malaysia. The somewhat unusual meeting point starkly illustrates the abnormal times we live in; it would have been a most unlikely venue in ordinary times, given that some 350,000 people cross the Causeway daily prior to the Covid-19 border control measures.

The pandemic may have put a stop temporarily to the daily commute between the two countries. But the connectivity between Singapore and Johor - and onto the rest of Malaysia - is permanent; and more physical point-to-point nodes are needed once the situation normalises, as it eventually will.

The cessation of free movement of people in the past few months has been keenly felt in both countries. Singapore employers who rely on Malaysian workers who commute daily from Johor are hobbled while Johor's economy has taken a big hit from the dearth of Singaporean spending as well as loss of income of its residents who can no longer work in Singapore.

The crisis has its silver lining, such as accelerating the adoption of digitalisation by employers as their workers are forced to work from home. Singapore is also shoring up its resilience by increasingly diversifying its imports of food and other necessities to avoid being overly dependent on any single country.

But Singapore's well-being in the long term must be to continue to be open to the rest of the world and to its closest neighbour. Seen in this light, the reciprocal green lane protocol for travellers on essential or official business and periodic commuting arrangement for long-term pass holders that are set to begin on Aug 10 is a right step, even though the Covid-19 threat has not passed and Singapore continues to be vigilant against imported cases.

Mr Muhyiddin is a familiar face. As Johor's chief minister from 1986 to 1995, he has had good working relations with Singapore leaders over the years. While his coalition has a small majority in the Malaysian parliament, Mr Muhyiddin's government is stable and popular with the populace. This bodes well for continued cooperation between Singapore and Malaysia across a range of issues, as well as the rapid realisation of the RTS Link project.