[663] Of Singapore, Malaysian Malaysia and what if
How does the Malay in the kampong find his way out into this modernised civil society? By becoming servants of the 0.3 per cent who would have the money to hire them to clean their shoe, open their motorcar doors? ... Of course there are Chinese millionaires in big cars and big houses. Is it the answer to make a few Malay millionaires with big cars and big houses? How does telling a Malay bus driver that he should support the party of his Malay director (UMNO) and the Chinese bus conductor to join another party of his Chinese director (MCA) - how does that improve the standards of the Malay bus driver and the Chinese bus conductor who are both workers in the same company?
If we delude people into believing that they are poor because there are no Malay rights or because opposition members oppose Malay rights, where are we going to end up? You let people in the kampongs believe that they are poor because we don't speak Malay, because the government does not write in Malay, so he expects a miracle to take place in 1967 (the year Malay would become the national and sole official language). The moment we all start speaking Malay, he is going to have an uplift in the standard of living, and if doesn't happen, what happens then?
Meanwhile, whenever there is a failure of economic, social and educational policies, you come back and say, oh, these wicked Chinese, Indian and others opposing Malay rights. They don't oppose Malay rights. They, the Malay, have the right as Malaysian citizens to go up to the level of training and education that the more competitive societies, the non-Malay society, has produced. That is what must be done, isn't it? Not to feed them with this obscurantist doctrine that all they have got to do is to get Malay rights for the few special Malays and their problem has been resolved. ...
I'm finally done with Lee Kuan Yew's The Singapore Story and I enjoyed it, especially the last few chapters. The book however leaves me behind a few questions. What if we had stayed true to the Federation? What if Singapore were still a Malaysian state? I can't help but wonder, could Malaysian Malaysia be a reality today if Singapore weren't expelled from the Federation?
I think yes.
Lee Kuan Yew's People's Action Party (PAP), given time and if Singapore weren't expelled from the Federation, would have outmaneuvered the Alliance. Perhaps, given the competition, United Malays National Organization (UMNO) would have turned into United Malaysians National Organization, as Onn Jaafar had envisioned earlier.
Yet, UMNO, seeing that possibility, acted quickly and put their interest first, Malaysia's second. They expelled Singapore instead to secure their monopoly of power.
Yes, if Singapore were still part of Malaysia, I truly believe we would have a Malaysian Malaysia by now.
interesting point of view.
however, considering (1)the population of malay in malaysia is still outnumbering other ethnic group, even if include singapore portion, plus (2)along the years there's still a large number of malays who is under-educated, which is the group of people who are easily manipulated and controlled and hence the source of vote of UMNO; so I guess the end result will be the same as today.
well, this is what i think.
By , at 28 October, 2005 14:06
from what I read, there were 40% Malay, 40% Chinese and 20% others. In fact, the Malay in Singapore voted for PAP instead of UMNO. UMNO then called these Malays traitors.
By __earth, at 28 October, 2005 21:36
hmmm...
If UMNO were then led by people who had put the country(Malaysia) at the first place rather than power for themselves, Malaysia would have been so much different today. Well, that's all history by now.
By Dreamstate, at 28 October, 2005 21:51
I think the fate of a Malaysian Malaysia as fantasy was secured at the point when Mahathir became PM. If you look back, all our previous Prime Ministers were much more devoted to the country as a whole than Mahathir was. That isn't to say Mahathir wasn't devoted to the nation; it's merely that his love for the country was expressed in policies that catered only to a small subset of the population. Proton, the aggressive subsidies for the Malays, corruption, etc. all can be traced largely back to his reign. The UMNO of today is not the UMNO of 20 years ago, and is definitely not the UMNO of 30 or 40 years ago.
I'm not too sure that if Singapore had remained in Malaysia, things would be better. The fact is that there was just too much of a divide between the old UMNO's moderate pro-Malay privileges policy and the PAP's egalitarianism. If Singapore had not split, I suspect nasty things would have happened as the war of words got more bitter and bitter, perhaps even escalating into some sort of physical violence.
Still, it's nice to dream.
By johnleemk, at 29 October, 2005 11:11
"The UMNO of today is not the UMNO of 20 years ago, and is definitely not the UMNO of 30 or 40 years ago."
how true. the 'old' UMNO was gone back in 1987 when it was declared null and void. mahathir created a new UMNO which was, then, technically named UMNO (Baru). by rights, the current UMNO's first president is mahathir and has no connections to tunku (who btw never joined the new UMNO). but do we hear anything on this? definitely not..
By Desparil, at 30 October, 2005 21:19
Yes, the two UMNOs are different but their difference is superficial.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Or maybe not as sweet but all the same. Even Razaleigh Hamzah is an UMNOian right now.
By __earth, at 30 October, 2005 23:53
To question history's what-if's is a good practice, but to look ahead and analyze the current situation would be a better practice.
I loved that book too. It kept me thinking of lots of 'what-if's. I agree with what's been said in johnleemk's comments, in fact that's what happened soon after singapore separated from malaysia. racial tensions ignited waves of riots and dismay. i think it'll take some time for malaysians to be reeducated about the need to have a unified national identity.
until then, we'll have achieve the dream of malaysia for malaysians. hope i'm still there to witness it.
By nmouse, at 31 October, 2005 05:33
