Excellent Spore-Msia ties a pie in the sky
The headline of the Nanyang Siang Pau on March 4 read: 'Singapore should drink the water and think of its source.' And the sub-headline of which was, 'Malaysia-Singapore ties inalienable: Brigadier-General George Yeo'.
According to the Chinese-language daily, the Trade and Industry Minister of Singapore at a business conference held in Johor Bahru the day before, reminded his fellow countrymen to be grateful for the water supply that they received from the Malaysian state of Johor. What makes the news interesting is the fact that it was not reported in the media across the causeway.
Instead, the online version of the Straits Times of Singapore chose to stress the strategic role played by both Singapore and Malaysia in strengthening Asean, while the Chinese-language Zaobao.com news portal made no mention of the speech at all. One cannot help feeling that Yeo's message was only meant to make Malaysians 'feel good'.
Since their respective independence from direct British rule in 1957 and 1959*, Malaya, later Malaysia, and Singapore have seemed destined to be two quarreling brothers, inevitably locked in constant sibling rivalry. Yet their dependence on each other in terms of water supply, trade and investment, not to mention the estimated 200,000 Malaysians working in the lion-city, has made the cross-strait ties too important to severe.
Inherently alien
The touchy relationship between Kuala Lumpur (or, should we now say Putrajaya?) and Singapore is often compared to that of China and Taiwan, although such comparison will surely irk and antagonise our friends across the causeway who often claim, without concrete evidence, that Malaysia 'would one day take back that little dot' should the city-state fail.
In fact, the ambivalent feeling of many Malaysians towards our southern neighbour is beyond dispute. Perhaps we are too proud to admit the one-time federal partner's splendid and remarkable achievements in almost all aspects - except perhaps democratic progress - following its humiliating expulsion ('withdrawal' is the preferred term over there) from the federation 35 years ago.
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