The bilateral relationship between Malaysia and Singapore is complicated not only because of contemporary issues, but probably also their past relations, threat perceptions, security cultures and grand strategies.
In the aftermath of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, Malaysia constantly criticised Singapore for the operation of its free market in international finance. Singapore was then probably feared in Kuala Lumpur as a launchpad for Western currency speculators and Chinese tycoons to impoverish the Malay/Muslim polity as defined by Umno.
However, immediately after the 1999 general elections when PAS and other Malay/Muslim oppositionists made some electoral gains, Singapore began to express active concerns in the 'domestic politics' and 'internal affairs' of Malaysia. Its paramount leader, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, even came over personally to Kuala Lumpur twice to openly indicate political preference for the republic for Umno.
In the first trip, Lee spoke of the handling of the Anwar Ibrahim saga by Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Umno as an "unmitigated disaster". It is not clear whether he referred to Mahathir not doing the right thing or not doing the thing right .
However, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Umno Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein have henceforth been cordially meeting their Singaporean peers quite frequently here in Malaysia, or there in Singapore.
They do not seem to mind Singapore interfering in the domestic affairs of Malaysia, which has also been the case in the past. When the controversial book written by Mahathir The Malay Dilemma was banned in Malaysia, it was published, sold and widely read in Singapore.
In 1998, Lee also expressed his sympathy for former Indonesian president, Suharto and his disapproval of BJ Habibie as the successor to the besieged Cold Warrior. The remark caused demonstrations in Jakarta and brought forth an angry 'reminder' from Habibie that Singapore is just a red dot on the map .
Comparing Islamic threat to communism
The terrorist attacks in Washington DC and New York City were once thought to have strengthened the political ties between the two regimes in the name of national security, just as the communist insurgency and the Indonesian hostility provided a common perception of external threat that united the otherwise quarrelsome former colonies of the British Empire.
However, the common perception of Islamic threat, in peacetime or in a non-violent situation, does not seem to be as strong, sharply-defined and durable as its communist predecessor. For while communism was culturally alien to the majority of the people in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, Islam is not.
Islam is the religion of the federation of Malaysia and the living faith as well as the way of life of the majority of people in both Malaysia and Indonesia. It can be argued that using the antiquated and crude anti-communist techniques of projecting the Islamic threat in order to build or preserve alliance simply backfires in Malaysia and Indonesia.
In the Cold War years, the atheism of Marxism-Leninism alone could be exploited to pit Muslims against the communists, and it was successfully done. However, projecting the Islamic threat in an unimaginative manner in post-Cold War period serves only to de-legitimise governments and ruling politicians in Malaysia and Indonesia because Muslims constitute the majority of voters.
In Malaysia and Indonesia, civil and security services, police and armed forces are also predominantly Muslims. Thus, given the differences in population make-up between Singapore on one hand, and Malaysia and Indonesia on the other, Singapore's 'meat' could be the 'poison' for Malaysia and Indonesia.
Moreover, while it was easier to define communism in sharp contrast to non-communist or anti-communist ideologies, it isnt that easy with regard to political Islam on one hand and its 'non-political' version, if there is any, on the other.
Over-zealous but insensitive efforts to distinguish 'right' Islam from 'wrong' Islam, by leaders who are popularly perceived as unjust even by non-Muslims, could itself become a problem, not a solution.
Crude, wild and irresponsible propaganda against Muslims and Islam as such, especially in the Malaysian and Singaporean cyberspace, aggravates the problem. It does not augur well for inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony in Malaysia and Singapore, and the inter-state relationship between the two countries.
JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia . Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew , he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.
