The plot over the half-bridge thickened today with Dr Mahathir Mohamad's former political secretary for Chinese affairs calling on Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar to resign.

According to Matthias Chang ( right ), the minister had 'wrongly advised' Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi over the half-bridge issue.

Without mincing his words, the practicing lawyer called Syed Hamid a 'big Napoleon' during a no-holds barred press conference in Kuala Lumpur this morning, which saw the former thumping the table and throwing a book.

"The PM said we will not tolerate 'little Napoleons', I would go further ... we should not tolerate big Napoleons who don't know how to do their jobs and therefore should resign.

"As foreign minister, chief negotiator and adviser to the prime minister, this 'big Napoleon' should also go. There should not be any exception," he added.

Last week, Abdullah said a small group of top civil servants - whom he termed 'little Napoleons' - were trying to exert their power by delaying the implementation of development projects.

Pak Lah not to be blamed

Chang, who claimed to be speaking in his personal capacity, said Abdullah should not be blamed for the bridge fiasco because he was surrounded by 'bad advisers'.

"I was very surprised that during the course of the negotiations between Singapore and Malaysia, some key facts had been muddled, misrepresented and totally ignored," he said.

Chang reiterated that he was not criticising Abdullah but wanted to put "more facts on the table so that everybody could understand the evidence and the rakyat could come to a rational conclusion".

"I was the former political secretary to the former prime minister and I can say without fear of contradiction that I have detailed knowledge of the issue.

"I was tasked by the (former) prime minister to do all the critical research and conduct a review of the negotiating strategy between Malaysia and Singapore," he said.

Although not being part of the negotiating team, Chang said he knew the matter 'inside out' and had compiled 14 volumes of documentation comprising over 1,500 pages.

These documents, he added, were submitted to the Foreign Ministry, then law minister Rais Yatim, the Attorney-General's Chambers, the Malaysian ambassador to Singapore, the Queen's Counsel engaged by Malaysia and other relevant officials.

'Bulldoze' strategy

Referring to a news report that quoted Syed Hamid as saying that "the plan would not have worked", Chang asked why the minister had remained silent for so long.

"If that was the situation, why did he continue the negotiations for three years since 2003? Why didn't he tell the former PM or me, the political secretary, that the plan would not have worked anyway in 2003 before (Mahathir) retired?"

Referring to another news report in which Syed Hamid said there would be 'legal implications if Malaysia wanted to bulldoze through its ambitions', an enraged Chang asked:

"You (Syed Hamid) are the chief negotiator and you are saying your strategy is to bulldoze. Since when had Malaysia ever bulldozed anything?"

Chang said the negotiation of many issues between Malaysia and Singapore was discussed as a package.

But this dragged on for years and Malaysia felt that it was not making any headway because the issues were too complicated, he added.

At this point, he said Mahathir realised that it would be best to solve the issues one by one and both nations decided on this approach.

No sand involved

However, Chang said the issue of sand was never raised then. "All of a sudden, a new equation was brought into place - sand".

He also claimed that former Singapore premier Goh Chock Tong had agreed that Malaysia could build the bridge in two letters published by the Singapore government regarding the water supply issue in 2003. They were published in the booklet - ' Water Talks: If only it could '.

Chang distributed copies of the letters to the media.

In one of the letters dated April 11, 2002, Goh, who is now Singapore's senior minister, wrote to Mahathir:

" Between a new bridge to replace the entire causeway, and one to replace just the Malaysian side of the causeway, I like the former better. Once the new bridge is completed, the causeway can be knocked down, which I prefer to be done after 2007. But if you wish to proceed immediately to replace just your side of the causeway with a bridge, I shall accept it, though I think this is not ideal ."

Referring to this letter, Chang said the former Singapore premier was in favour of a full bridge, " ... so how the hell did it come to this situation...?"

"Syed Hamid should resign. Since when did we bulldoze Singapore. He does not know his facts, he didn't even master the facts before negotiating.

"So where are the legal impediments? We have no legal impediments," he stated.

Chang also noted that the former Singapore premier had not mentioned anything about giving sand or allowing their air force aircraft access to Malaysian airspace in his letter.

'Go ahead and sue me'

Mahathir's former aide also challenged Syed Hamid to sue him if he was wrong.

"This man doesn't know his job, quote me on that. And I challenge him to sue me. If he had read this letter (from Goh), can he as foreign minister and chief negotiator in his statement to the press, say that our strategy is to bulldoze?"

Following this, Chang turned his attention to the media, challenging it to publish his remarks in full.

He also said that the media was being unfair to Mahathir by censoring his comments regarding this issue.

"I also challenge all the journalists in this room today, go back to your editors (and tell them) to print what I said.

"You all didn't do your homework when you interviewed Syed Hamid, if you did your homework, you would have confronted him," he added.

Shahrir slammed

Chang also disagreed with the notion that the bridge was a 'Mahathir project'.

"The (former) PM proposed the project for the country and you say it is his personal project? It is endorsed by the government and accepted by Singapore," he said.

Also coming in the lawyer's crosshairs was Backbenchers Club head Shahrir Samad, who had recently rejected Mahathir's call for a public referendum on the bridge.

He said Shahrir did not know the full facts and challenged the MP to a debate on the matter.

"I can't stand MPs who don't do their homework and make press statements just because by virtue of being the backbencher chairman. So what?"

Chang also criticised the New Straits Times for publishing the photos of Syed Hamid and Mahathir in a manner that depicted a 'Mike Tyson and Holyfield' boxing match.

"Is this fair? Syed Hamid cannot be compared to Mahathir. Don't put the two pictures like that. Who made him a foreign minister? Mahathir," he said.