Relation Between Malaysia And Singapore Essay

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Introduction Malaysia and Singapore are only separated by a kilometre long of Tebrau Straits. The bilateral relationship between these two countries can be expressed by a variety of expressions such as ‘family quarrel’, ‘sibling rivalry’ and ‘Siamese twins’. These expressions express the complex love-hate relationship between Malaysia and Singapore. Since Singapore separated from the Federation during 1963, lots of tensions and mutual destructs have occurred in the relations between Malaysia and its neighbour Singapore. These also lead to the failure of settling their many longstanding disputed issues. Hence, this academic paper will cover on the issues that occurred in Malaysia-Singapore bilateral relations that took place during Mahathir’s …show more content…

There are many factors that affect bilateral love-hate relations of Malaysia and Singapore. But first, it is important to know some reasons why Singapore joined Malaysia and why Singapore was separated from Malaysia. The major reasons mergence of Singapore into Malaysia were; firstly to solve severe economic problems of Singapore. At that time, Malaya was seen as the main producer of rubber and tin but needed to use Singapore’s port to export. Secondly, security problems such ad riot, strikes and civil disorder that been faced by Singapore for several years. Hence, by joining Malaysia, Singapore will become a larger federation with stable politics that eventually will attract foreign entrepreneurs to invest and do business here in Singapore. Unfortunately, Singapore was expelled from Malaysia on 9th August 1965. Singapore’s most obvious reason for been expulsed were due to their challenge against some important areas in the ground rules that govern Malaysian politics during 1963; (i) the special position of the Malays, (ii) the monarchical system and (iii) the use of Malay language as the national language. On top of that, Singapore also perceived that there was a racial inequality practice by Malaysian government with Malay dominance (Lee, 1991). Details on factors affecting bilateral relations between Malaysia and Singapore are explained as follows: 1. Negative perceptions

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