Not many Singaporeans are aware that the huge Europe-Asia landmass stretches all the way from the British Isles through the Causeway to Tuas in Singapore. Two developments have reminded us that what mankind has achieved nature may easily cast asunder and yet at the same time human will often triumphs in the end.
It has been a so near yet so far two-year long heartache for many families and friends on both sides of the Causeway who have been separated because of the Covid-19 pandemic and who finally got to reunite on Friday April 1.
A Straits Times/AsiaOne story captured well one such tear-wrenching reunion:
“Roslan Haron finally held his 11-month-old son in his arms for the first time since the baby was born, after he crossed the Causeway on Friday morning.
“As he emerged from the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex in Johor Baru, the Malaysian found his wife, Nurfifiafina Hamsani, waiting nervously with their son, Raees Meerza Roslan.
“This was the first time the 43-year-old had seen the toddler in the flesh as Covid-19 border restrictions between Singapore and Malaysia had kept them apart.”
At that microscopic level, the reopening of the Singapore-Malaysia borders resumed land travel for the general public between the two countries which was made possible by a Causeway opened since 1924 but by and large sealed off for the last wo years.
We tend to forget that long before air travel came around, it was land travel which has brought continents, civilisations and people together.
Turkey’s Bosphorus Bridge in 1973 – part of a trio of bridges – linked Europe with Asia for the first time ever in human history, if we discount the pre-Ice/Tectonic Age when the continents as we know them did not exist.
Turkey went one even better. Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum opened the massive 2,023m “1915 Canakkale Bridge” that connects Europe over the Dardenelles River to Asia in one single suspension bridge, the longest such bridge in the world. The bridge, which cost $3.67 billion, was constructed by a consortium of Turkish and South Korean companies.
It connects the town of Gelibolu, located in the European side of Turkey’s northwestern province of Canakkale, with the town of Lapseki on the Asian side.
On an intercontinental scale, the two developments – reopening of the Causeway and the completion of the new Turkish bridge – means, with proper planning, you can literally drive more smoothly , from Tuas or Jurong to John o’Groats, near Dunnet Head, the northernmost point of mainland Britain.
Since 1994, when the British Channel Tunnel was opened, the British Isles has been connected to the European landmass through to Asia and all the way to the southwestern coast of Sentosa and then via a small suspension bridge from Palawan Beach to Palawan Island which is considered the southernmost point of Continental Asia. Quite amazing, isn’t it?
But, as far as Singaporeans are concerned, they merely want to go north – to Johor Baru or Malaysia for shopping and dining and to reunite with families and friends. Traffic jam or not.
Beijing whisperer? Please lah, I’m not a kaypoh
This is from a Q and A following PM Lee Hsien Loong’s dialogue on March 31 with Dr Richard Haass, President of the US Council on Foreign Relations:
Kim Dozier (Time Magazine): I wanted to ask if the Biden Administration had accepted your proffered role as Beijing whisper and also on Capitol Hill.
PM Lee: I am not a Beijing whisperer.
There are two definitions of “whisperer”: (1) a gossip, talebearer, rumour-monger or the like (2) a person who is unusually skilled at calmly guiding, influencing or managing other people.
If I have to choose, it should be the second one. You should also notice that he did not answer the part about Capitol Hill.
But I think this is what PM Lee meant: “Please lah, I’m not a kaypoh. Got better things to do, like worrying about who my next PM is.”
Tan Bah Bah, consulting editor of TheIndependent.Sg, is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a local magazine publishing company.