KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he was given the cold shoulder for six months after questioning Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak about the delay of the “crooked bridge” project in the Johor Strait, the former prime minister told web portal Perak Today.

In the exclusive interview, Dr Mahathir said the falling-out with Najib happened after the two discussed the matter.

Dr Mahathir said Najib had told him about an agreement with Singapore regarding the Johor Causeway and said Malaysia could not touch the causeway unless Singapore agreed to it.

“[So, I said] ‘show me the agreement’ [but] there was no such agreement,” Dr Mahathir said.

“For six months, he didn’t talk to me.”

Najib did not speak to him until he met “Adnan Pahang”, Dr Mahathir told Perak Today, possibly referring to Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob.

After that, Najib decided to talk to him again, he said in a video interview posted on the website.

Dr Mahathir said he then met Najib again and was “very happy” to do so.

“We discussed but none of my suggestions were accepted, and he continues to do the wrong things. The administration of this country ... it is not a rich country. We have to be very careful,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said he did not want to kowtow to Singapore on a matter that was Malaysia’s sovereign right.

He said the bridge could still be built even if it stood only on Malaysia’s side of the Johor Strait.

“It’s our sovereign right. It is in our territorial area, our territorial waters. Half the causeway belongs to us; I’m not touching Singapore’s side at all.

“So when I find somebody kowtows to Singapore [and] wants to ask for its agreement to do something in our country, where is our sovereignty? Where is our independence?” he told Perak Today.

Dr Mahathir questioned if Malaysia is independent or a colony of Singapore, if it has to keep asking for the republic’s agreement for projects to be carried out, including the construction of a high-speed railway.

“Maybe I am a little bit more proud. I have my national pride and I don’t want to bow down to anyone,” he said.

The “crooked bridge”, called so because of its curved design, was Dr Mahathir’s idea for another link between Johor Baru and Singapore. It was first proposed when he was the prime minister.

Najib, in a pre-recorded television interview aired by TV3 on April 9, said Dr Mahathir was probably angry with him for not continuing the project when he became the prime minister.

However, Dr Mahathir responded in a video interview with bloggers, saying that he was not upset with Najib because of the bridge, but that the latter had broken his promise to build it, and other unanswered issues linked to the latter, including controversies surrounding the government-owned strategic development fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd, and the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 17, 2015.