Okay, as is typical of people when some purse snatcher just grabbed their handbag that, though not containing anything valuable, holds personal documents that legally identifies who they are, I am feeling mean about the Pulau Batu Putih/Pedra Branca saga today. A quick surf on Wikipedia and I find out there is a reason why that hot piece of white rock has got this foreign sounding name of Pedra Branca that its’ new owners in Singapore are so gleefully proud of. I got quite a chuckle out of it myself and found this photo of seagulls crapping on a rock in Rathlin Island, Dublin, Ireland to illustrate that years of accumulated poop can sure make you white…hehehe. This is what Wiki says about Pedra Branca:
The island first appeared in navigational records as early as 1583. Dutch voyager Johann van Linschoten then recorded that Pedra Branca is “where ships that come and go to and from China pass in great danger and some are left upon it”. The rocks get their name from years of accumulated bird droppings which hardened upon the rock.
To be fair to our neighbours, read this history of Singapore - Road to Independence (sorry wrong link given earlier) and Lee Kwan Yew’s reaction to Tunku Abdul Rahman’s decision to separate Singapore from Malaysia that gives me ideas of how we can get Pulau Batu Putih back:
That afternoon, in a televised press conference, Lee declared Singapore a sovereign, democratic, and independent state. In tears he told his audience, “For me, it is a moment of anguish. All my life, my whole adult life, I have believed in merger and unity of the two territories.” (***Please Watch the YouTube videoclip of this historic moment!)
