Singapore and the birth of Malaysia

A FAMILY returns to the kampung in Peninsular Malaysia. The school- kids greet their grandfather.

He asks them: “After this where are you going? Do you know that today is Malaysia Day?”

“It is a holiday, grandfather. We are going to play,” the granddaughter says.

“Yes, but what is Malaysia Day?” he asks.

“I am not sure, grandfather. All I know is it is a holiday,” says the grandson.

“The holiday is because our forefathers fought to unite our country through a strong bond based on tolerance. And they studied each other’s strengths until they formed the Federation of Malaysia, which consists of Sabah, Sarawak and the peninsula,” the grandfather says.

“We must be proud of that achievement. Today, we celebrate the development that we would not have gotten without the unity among us no matter who.”

This scene is from a feel-good public service announcement (PSA) shared on my “We Love Penam­pang” WhatsApp group around midnight on Thursday.

“It is not factual. Singapore left out. Four entities formed Malaysia – Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore,” I commented.

I love history. We can learn from it. And I find that history repeats itself.

Tomorrow is Malaysia Day, and for the sake of Malaysians, like the grandchildren in the PSA, who are clueless about the formation of Malaysia, here’s my PSA on Singa­pore’s role in the Federation.

Singapore is a British colony – part of the Straits Settlements, which also included Penang and Melaka.

“Geographically part of the Malay peninsula, keeping Singapore separate from the Federation of Malaya was to go against the facts of geography and history even from the days before Sir Stamford Raffles founded modern Singapore in 1819,” wrote Lim Siong Guan, a former head of the Singapore civil service, in an opinion piece titled “Singapore, the accidental nation” in The Straits Times on Sept 14, 2017.

“Yet, the British had carved Singapore out of Malaya while integrating Penang and Melaka into the Federation of Malaya because Singapore hosted the largest British military establishment east of Suez. Singapore was critical for the sustenance of the British Empire.”

The British granted Malaya independence on Aug 31, 1957, which is why our country’s Merdeka Day is on that date.

However, it only granted Singapore self-government in 1959 while it controlled external relations and security.

The only way for the tiga suku merdeka (three-quarters independence) island state to gain independence, wrote Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in his memoir, The Singapore Story, was through a merger with Malaya.

Before the merger with Malaya, in a speech to convince Singapore on why it was necessary, Lee said Malaya and Singapore were inseparable.

“Everyone knows the reasons why the Federation (of Malaysia) is important to Singapore. It is in the hinterland which produces the rubber and tin that keep our shop-­window economy going. Without this economic base, Singapore would not survive,” he said.

“Without a merger, without a reunification of our two governments and an integration of our two economies, our economic position will slowly and steadily get worse. Your livelihood will get worse.

“Instead of there being one unified economic development for Malaya, there will be two. The Federation, instead of cooperating with Singapore, will compete against Singapore for industrial capital and industrial expansion. In this competition, both will suffer.”

The principle of “Don’t be weak” drove Singapore to find strength in the bigger political entity, said Lim.

“Malaya did not welcome the idea of a merger with Singapore. Singapore’s predominantly Chinese population would have tilted the overall racial balance in an unwelcome way,” he wrote.

In his book, Conversations with Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad asked the first Malaya prime minister and later the first Malaysia prime minister: “Some people said that Lee Kuan Yew, like you, had all along planned first to get into Malaysia and then do something such that you would have to kick him out, so that Singapore could become independent and he the Prime Minister of a separate nation. He did not think that the British would have given him Singapore independence on its own. What do you think of this?”

Tunku Abdul Rahman replied: “True, the British would not give him independence. I gave him independence.”

Abdullah said: “You wanted Singa­­­­­­pore in Malaysia. I think, to me, it was a smart move on your part.”

Tunku said: “In actual fact, I wanted only Sarawak and North Borneo (now Sabah) at the time. But the British made a condition that if I wanted Sarawak and North Borneo, I must also have Singapore as well, because we would be the influence that could keep Singapore from the communist menace. I said that was all right; if that was their condition, I would take Singa­pore in.”

The formation of the Federation of Malaysia was supposed to be on Aug 31, 1963. But it was postponed as Indonesia and the Philippines had opposed to Sarawak and North Borneo being in the Federation.

Finally, on Sept 16, 1963, it was formed.

Coincidentally, it was the birthday of Lee, one of the founding fathers of Malaysia.

“The Tunku was not aware that it was my 40th birthday. If he had been, he might well have changed the date – my birthday could not be his lucky day,” he wrote in his memoir.

Why did the grandfather in the PSA not mention Singapore as part of Malaysia?

Probably it was because on Aug 9, 1965, Malaysia kicked it out of the Federation.

Happy Malaysia Day! As the grandfather said, it is not only a holiday. It is the birth of Malaysia.