On Sept 16, 1963, Malaysia was formed ostensibly to rid itself of colonial rule for good. Mind you, it was also Lee Kuan Yew’s 40th birthday. Nearly five decades on, the man who is credited with having ‘single-handedly’ developed Singapore into an ultra-modern republic must now feel vindicated at the political divorce, but even luckier was Brunei that was almost lured into becoming merely a state of Malaysia.