Dr M: Probe low status of Singapore Malays

Mahathir dismisses Singapore as a "tiny" country

Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad on Friday dismissed Singapore as a "tiny" country and said it should mind its own business in a racial row between the neighbours. Responding to criticism from Singapore's founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew that Malaysia mistreated its ethnic Chinese minority, Mahathir said: "Don't be like that Kuan Yew. You just look after your rice bowl, that is all. "The country is tiny, don't be too proud," added Mahathir, 81, who ruled Malaysia for 22 years until 2003. He has also called on Singapore to set up an independent body to look into why the Malay community in the city state has been marginalised. The former prime minister questioned why Malays in Singapore had not been given opportunities to hold high positions in government bodies like the armed forces. “Why are Malays in the republic marginalised and why do they have very little status? “Moreover, the disparity in per capita income between the Chinese and Malays is also wide. “This should be probed instead of him (former Singapore premier Lee Kuan Yew) pointing fingers at Singapore's neighbours,” he told reporters here yesterday. A similar reference about Singapore's geographical size had sparked a storm between Singapore and Indonesia in 1998. Then-Indonesian President B.J. Habibie referred to Singapore as a "little red dot" in a sea of green -- a reference to the fact the city-state of 4.4. million people is surrounded by Malaysia and Indonesia -- two large, predominantly Muslim countries. Lee, 83, told a forum in Singapore last week that it was vital for Singapore, a predominantly ethnic Chinese state, to stand up to its bigger neighbours. Singapore and Malaysia have deep economic ties, but diplomatic relations are often strained. The two countries briefly united as one country in 1963 but separated two years later in a falling out related to racial politics.

Our LKY to Singapore's LKY - The statement on Malaysian Chinese was wrong and uncalled for. Gerakan president Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, the country’s veteran ethnic Chinese politician, said Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father, had put things out of context by stating that Malaysian Chinese were being marginalised. "We have a vast hinterland of rural areas that are fortunately or unfortunately inhabited by Bumiputeras. In any developed country, there is always a problem between the urban and rural, so if you don’t go and fill up the rural area then there is discontent," he said after the launch of Wawasan Open University at Menara PGRM yesterday. "So, what does Singapore know? It is a little city and it’s all urban areas, so he (Lee) can talk about competition, the best, and all this in an urban area but what about the rural areas? He doesn’t have to worry about that. "His perspective is all wrong. The Chinese here will not follow and listen to what he says."


Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak described the statement as naughty, adding: "I do not know his real motive but his comment is something that should not have been made in the first place. It is a comment that we can do without and is not appreciated at all. It is not accurate, has political impact and is very misleading." Najib said the government had no intention to sideline or marginalise non-Bumiputeras. The government, he added, had never adopted a policy which aimed at hindering the progress of the non-Bumiputeras as all it wanted was nothing but fairness and equal distribution of wealth for all races .

Mean while, The Backbenchers Club (BBC) wants Singapore Minister-Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who accused Malaysia and Indonesia of systematically marginalising their ethnic Chinese, to apologise openly to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his government. "He (Lee) has no right to make such accusation (to say that Malaysia and Indonesia systematically marginalised their ethnic Chinese population). Our political culture is different from Singapore. We never get involved in Singapore's internal affairs. "Singapore has gone overboard ... very often, its leaders say things that hurt the feelings of its neighbours. But we are wise and mature. We do not want to react when Singapore deliberately provokes us," BBC acting chairman Datuk Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar told reporters, here Saturday. Raja Ahmad also said Singapore's Ambassador to Malaysia must give a written explanation to the Malaysian government on why Lee made the statement so that the diplomatic tension between the two neighbours would ease up. Last weekend Lee, who is Singapore's founding Prime Minister, told reporters on the sideline of the IMF meeting that Malaysia and Indonesia's negative attitude towards Singapore was shaped by the way both countries mistreated and systematically marginalised their Chinese ethnic communities. Raja Ahmad argued that the Chinese in Malaysia were better off than the Malays in Singapore. "In Malaysia, Penang State is ruled by Gerakan (a Chinese-based party). There are so many Chinese in the Malaysian cabinet, the military and the police force. Can we say the same about the fate of the Malays in Singapore?" Singapore and Malaysia are often engaged in testy diplomatic rows since the tiny island republic of about 4 million people broke away from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965.


Rustam A. Sani, a regular columnist with Utusan Malaysia, wrote in his blog - "Vox Populi"

The Lee Kuan Yew remarks: Here we go again



In 1998 a piece I wrote for my regular weekly column in Utusan Malaysia – “Singapore and its Holocaust” – was translated into English and published in the Straits Times in Singapore – not at my request but on their own initiative. Little did I expect then that the article would become the main point of contention in that year’s Singapore National Day Rally speech by the then Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong.

In the part of his speech that discussed Singapore’s relations with Malaysia, not a word was mentioned about any political leader of Malaysia, whereas my name was mentioned several times. Goh agreed with some points that I have raised, but naturally disagreed with some. But he never took a combative stance towards my article, even when he disagreed with some of the points.

During that period I became quite a celebrity in Singapore. Whenever I was there attending conferences or giving talks at the university and other academic and research institutes, I was always referred to as “the writer that the PM mentioned.”

In that article I predicted that the relationship between Singapore and Malaysia would “forever remain volatile” because some basic contradictions in the relationship have not been resolved satisfactorily. Goh in his speech made a guess about what I meant by “basic contradictions” – and to him they are basically questions of race relations. He was, I believe, only partly correct.

It is not just race relations, but the way that societal processes in both countries are perceived by their leaders in racial terms that is detrimental to an amicable and mutually respectful relations between the two neighbouring nations. Moreover, a certain race-based perception of the societal processes in both countries were being used by both governments in both countries to enhance support for itself from their respective citizens – especially during politically trying and challenging times that both countries found itself in from time to time.

The late 1990s was such a time. Under the shadow of economic downturn and the Asian financial crisis, the opposition parties in Singapore were making some apparent headway. It was at this time that Singapore leaders reminded its people about the danger of being absorbed again into the Malaysian nation – books were published by university professors and a mammoth exhibition was organised by the Ministry of Education to “educate” the people about the “bitter” separation from Malaysia and about the dangers of being “dominated” racially.

I think I correctly pointed out then that Malaysia played the role of the Holocaust to Singapore – just as it would have been used by the Israeli state to remind everyone, friends and foes alike, that it is constantly being endangered by the enemies of its own existence. But Singapore is hardly the only side that was guilty of exploiting the game. Whenever the Umno-led Barisan Nasional government in Malaysia suffers a challenging situation vis-à-vis the support it gets from the Malay sector of the society, we tend to hear a bit more about the “suppression” of the Malays and the “supreme humiliation” that they suffer in Singapore.

Based on the state of play of the racist perception of the societal processes in both countries, I predicted in the 1998 article that “manifestations” of the racial suppression (or marginalisation if you like) would recur every few years to sour the relationship between the two neighbouring countries. Indeed, I was right on target. Between then and the latest remarks by Lee Kuan Yew, the issue had surfaced every few years – sometimes quite serious and at other times just causing a few ripples.

Based on the way the issue had been perceived and presented by Lee Kuan Yew, I believe that it would have its impact in Malaysia (I am not so sure about Indonesia though) than in Singapore itself. In Singapore, where social and historical reasons do not necessitate the implementation of policies similar to the NEP, the issue of marginalisation raised by the Mentor Minister is not going to excite anyone. Even the minority Malays of Singapore have long ceased to hope for any gesture of “special treatment” from the government; they have learned to opt for a strategy of “self-help” instead.

It is in Malaysia, where the policy and political language is always heavily couched in racist perspective and tone, that the Lee Kuan Yew statement is most likely to cause great excitement. Among the Malay racialists who are still fighting for dominance (ketuanan) and empowerment (pengupayaan), the Lee Kuan Yew remark will certainly be used as evidence of the attitudes and sentiments of their fellow non-Malay Malaysians. To the non-Malay racialists, the Lee Kuan Yew remarks simply take the words (and the concepts) out of their own mouths.

I am not challenging here the correctness of the perspecptive of the different currents of the racialist perspectives. All I am saying is that there are other ways – perhaps more correct and logical ways – of looking at our social issues, but these other ways have simply not been given a chance. Just as the issue of racial “marginalisation” of the Malays in Penang can actually be analysed and dealt with as an issue of uneven development, all our other major social issues too could, and should, be recast in non-racist terms.

And now, the racists in Malaysia and even perhaps in South East Asia, have been given new impetus and confidence with the support of the senior statesman from Singapore.

I am totally disappointed with Lee Kuan Yew, to say the least. As a student of politics of this region I used to admire Lee Kuan Yew as the pioneer of a non-racist perspective to local politics – together with his “friends” such as Samad Ismail, Devan Nair, Fong Swee Suan, S. Woodhull, and others. But his recent remarks show that he has now totally imbibed the racist perspectives of other political leaders of the region, especially those in Malaysia.

He has accused his neighbouring countries of the region for badly treating Singapore as an extension of their act of marginalizing their own Chinese citizens. I think Lee Kuan Yew is not totally correct here. In terms of international relations, Singapore is badly treated not because of its Chineseness or because its leaders, Lee Kuan Yew included, are Chinese. If Singapore continues to arrogantly pursue a foreign policy that ignores the sentiments and sensibilities of its neighbours in supporting forces that the neighbours are not comfortable with, then the neighbours would naturally have the right to disagree with – even oppose – Singapore, however way Singapore perceive itself : a “Chinese” nation or whatever.


Malaysia Singapore Dr M Lee Kuan Yew Najib Minister Mentor Keng Yaik Malay Chinese