Shortly after the Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung and Malaysian Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin met on Wednesday (23 Mar) and discussed the possibility of fully resuming the land and air travel between Singapore and Malaysia for fully vaccinated individuals, the Prime Ministers of the two countries settled the final date with one phone call.
If I was in the Health Ministers’ position (they are both still in Kuala Lumpur), they’d be looking at each other helplessly, speechless about the efficiency of the higher echelons.
It’s like, “Time to pack up and go, guess our job here is done.”
And mind you, the Prime Minister’s Speech and Multi-Taskforce Press Conference just took place, like oh, maybe four to five hours ago, at the time of writing this article?
Now the border re-opening is fully set in stone.
Quarantine-Free Land Travel Starting From 1 April
In a joint statement made by Prime Ministers Lee Hsien Loong and Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Thursday (24 Mar), they announced that starting from 1 April, fully vaccinated travellers from Singapore and Malaysia will be allowed to travel across the land border between both countries without the need for quarantine or COVID-19 tests before departing or upon arrival.
This applies to all categories of travellers and modes of transport via land.
Whether you want to travel by foot, bus, motorcycle or car, you have free reign.
It was all settled in one phone call. I think.
Similar to the Health Ministers in their Cabinet, the Prime Ministers acknowledged that both countries were handling the pandemic situation fairly well, and much of their respective populations have been vaccinated.
Additionally, they noted that the resumption of cross-border travel through the Vaccinated Travels Lanes, though restricted by quotas, have been going smoothly.
Since both countries have acclimatised well to the reality of living with COVID-19, they agreed it was high time to further reopen the land border.
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The Joint Statement
Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said, “As Malaysia reopens our borders to international travellers starting 1 April 2022, we will achieve another significant milestone in facilitating cross border travel with our immediate neighbour Singapore. Today’s announcement reflects the long-standing relations and multifaceted cooperation as well as the strong people-to-people ties with positive impacts on the economies and livelihood of the people of both countries.”
Echoing similar sentiments, PM Lee Hsien Loong stated, “Singapore and Malaysia enjoy deep, warm and multi-faceted relationships, as well as strong people-to-people ties. Today’s announcement is a significant milestone in our transition towards living with COVID-19. It reflects the strong collaboration both sides have enjoyed throughout the pandemic and will help both countries emerge stronger from this crisis.”
If the Prime Ministers’ writers didn’t draft the statements together, with one paraphrasing the other and shifting around the sentences, I’ll eat my keyboard live.
To put their words in simpler terms, Singapore and Malaysia have strong economic ties. It wouldn’t make sense if we delayed the inevitable further and continue to impede the mutual benefits that both countries bring to each other.
Our ties run very deep despite the teary break-up in 1965 that led to Singapore’s independence.
Therefore, rejoice! Normalcy has finally returned on the Causeway front.
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