Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today said he will pen a letter to Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew asking him to explain his statement that the Chinese in Malaysia are marginalised.

Abdullah said he wanted to know why Lee made that statement as he could not see the rationale behind it.

"I will write to him and ask him to explain why he said it," the premier was quoted as saying by Bernama .

The premier stressed that such statements should not come from a neighbouring country as Singapore will also be affected if Malaysia is not stable.

The republic also has internal problems regarding its people, he said, adding: "We know they also have problems, not (everything is) 100 percent good."

Last weekend Lee, who is Singapore's founding prime minister, told reporters on the sideline of the IMF meeting that Malaysia and Indonesia's negative attitude towards Singapore was shaped by the way both countries mistreated and systematically marginalised their Chinese ethnic communities.

Apologise to Pak Lah

In a related development, the Backbenchers Club (BBC) wanted Lee to make an apology to Abdullah and his government.

"He (Lee) has no right to make such accusation (to say that Malaysia and Indonesia systematically marginalised their ethnic Chinese population). Our political culture is different from Singapore. We never get involved in Singapore's internal affairs.

"Singapore has gone overboard ... very often, its leaders say things that hurt the feelings of its neighbours. But we are wise and mature. We do not want to react when Singapore deliberately provokes us," BBC acting chairperson Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar told reporters today.

Raja Ahmad also said Singapore's Ambassador to Malaysia must give a written explanation to the Malaysian government on why Lee made the statement so that the diplomatic tension between the two neighbours would ease up.

He argued that the Chinese in Malaysia were better off than the Malays in Singapore.

"In Malaysia, the Penang state is ruled by Gerakan (a predominantly Chinese party). There are so many Chinese in the Malaysian cabinet, the military and the police force.

"Can we say the same about the fate of the Malays in Singapore?" he asked.

Singapore and Malaysia are often engaged in testy diplomatic rows since the tiny island republic of about four million people broke away from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965.