The Singapore government in turn responded by noting that from 1October 2014,it would stop issuing such notes.
The second development was the outbreak of violence between the Indonesian police's mobile brigade (brimob) and marines from the TNI's tuah sakti 134 battalion based in batam which is proximate to Singapore and where many Singapore companies have investment.
The violence arose after four marines were shot by brimob personnel who were investigating oil smuggling.
The incident led in turn to a tit-for-tat marine attack on the brimob headquarters although they had explicit orders to return to their barracks and turn in their weapons.
Outbreaks of such violence between the TNI and brimob are quite common in Indonesia although it has not happened this close to Singapore in the past.
In an unrelated development, the TNI announced the establishment of the tenth infantry battalion in setatok island in batam with amphibious and rocker launcher capabilities.
The development is also likely to have been noted in Singapore which maintains a high level of interest in developments that could affect its security.
Singapore's bilateral relations with Malaysia started well in the year but underwent some hiccups as the year progressed.
Singapore offered use of its military assets at the start of the year as part of multinational efforts to locate Malaysian airlines system's flight MH370 that disappeared enroute to Beijing.
These assets included two C-130 aircraft , a naval helicopter ,a Folker-50 maritime partrol craft,two warships and a submarine support and rescue vessel.
It also pledged that it was ready to provide further support if necessary.
The first hiccup was the result of seemingly tit-for-tat raises in the toll booth charges that both countries levy on traffic crossing the common causeway between them.
Singapore began the increase at least party in order to prevent Singapore and Malaysians working in Singapore from being insulated from the high cost of car ownership in Singapore .
Malaysia subsequently raised its own toll charges significantly in August and Singapore noted that it was prepared to reciprocate the gesture.
When the new Malaysian charges was announced , there was some amount of disruption to traffic sine a number of buses ferrying workers were reported to have jammed the causeway in protest against the hikes.
However, the situation returned to normal shortly afterwards.
Then,at the end of the year in December , the Malaysian government announced that effective from the middle of 2015,it wold levy an entry fee of twenty Malaysian ringgit (us$5.50) for all vehicles entering the country via the causeway and the second link from Singapore.
The Singapore government again responded that it would deal with the new situation in due course.
The second hiccup pertained to Singapore's concern about the transboundary impact of Malaysia 's extensive land reclamation off the coast of the southern state of Johor.
The forest city project mooted by Chinese developers, country garden holdings, near the second link in the western part of the straits of Johor is slated to involve several connected islands spanning an area of Johor is slated to involve several connected islands spanning an area of approximately 1,600 hectares.
Singapore protested that although the project does not cross maritime boundaries, construction work would affect the "water flows and silting" through the channel.
In response Malaysia 's department of environment has set limits on the project.
At the time of writing, the new limits had only been verbally informed and official confirmation had not been given yet.
In other bilateral news, an international arbitral council ruled that the Malaysian government would not have to pay a development levy of s$1.47 billion in order to jointly develop. What used to be Malayan railway land.
Singapore had sought the levy which is applied for local development works but the charge was overruled by the tribunal.
The decision has since been uploaded on the website of the permanent court of arbitration in The Hague.
This development brings to a close one of the thorns in the bilateral relationship between the countries.