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
Although the comments or the insinuation may seem harmless to some, it contains a negative connotation that only reinforces stereotypes and discriminates
“What behind your eyes holds more power than what in front of them,” Gary Zukav a four time consecutive New York Times Best Seller once said. In other words, each situation has multiple different views because as humans we choose what we want to see. The continuous or subconscious decision to see or not see something is directly influenced by one 's sense and surrounds affects what someone understands. This comprehension of what happening is commonly known as perception. Since perception can either impede or enhance a situation either way it is better to look at the positive side of things.
Spread of negative stereotypes Negative stereotypes have been created by us, as a society, we have allowed ourselves to live with this misconceptions that impact all of us in a certain way. We have contributed to those beliefs that say that social status, income class and ethnicity define our identity. In fact, we have been and also have prejudged others at a certain point in our lives, we prejudge people we don’t know and also the ones we think we know like our own family members. In “The Achievement of Desire” by Richard Rodriguez he discusses his personal experience on how he stereotyped himself and also his family.
Perceptions can help people see what is happening, but mistakes in perceptions can have serious consequences. Fitzgerald quotes, ¨Until I realized that her
Often, the way we perceive something is altered or controlled by someone/something. Like mentioned earlier, we have our more ordinary influences, like social norms/expectations. But in many cases our perception is tailored. In Brave New World, the Government had complete control over the society's perception. The Government did this by only allowing people to see what they wanted them to see, and not really supporting personal perception.
This leads to preconception and stereotypes, and these are what cause another misunderstanding, and it creates this pessimistic
While some believe not all assumptions and stereotypes are bad, but they force people of the group to fit in a generalized description stripping individuals of their uniqueness. According to the article, “ Positive Stereotypes Are Pervasive and Powerful” by Alexander M. Czopp, Aaron C. Kay, Sapna Cheryan, “even norms that emphasize and encourage superficial attempts to demonstrate inclusiveness, diversity, and multiculturalism at personal and institutional levels...often come with subtle but substantial costs.” There no are such things as positive stereotypes because although affiliating one’s identity with the stereotypic strengths of their social group can have a more immediate response towards group pride and collective self-esteem,
In today’s society, individuals and groups are labeled with either positive or negative stereotypes. People encounter stereotypes everyday and everywhere. It is the picture people paint in their minds when approaching a group or individual when in fact it may be different in reality. Stereotypes affect a person’s way of living and thinking either in a negative or positive way. Stereotypes are based on truth but in an exaggerated way, while misconceptions are formed from having stereotypes.
Everybody has their own misconceptions of others, but how did stereotypes turn out to create false images for certain groups of people? Misconceptions are views or opinions that appear to be incorrect about a person. The misconceptions that are talked about these days often are from movies and tv shows that are watched everyday by millennials. They create a false image of particular people or things which get believed by young adults and kids. Stereotypes also have an effect on the generations of today because they are general characteristics that people believe represent a particular person or group.
Life is a symphony composed of three distinct movements, a lot of people, a few people, and almost no one; each of them is affected by stereotypes. "Stereotypes may be defined as popular beliefs about specific social groups or types of individuals and are broadly standardized or simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions,"*Stereotypes are present an incomplete, subjective and sometimes false image of the reality. They are often based on traditions and are resistant to change. Although they can have positive and negative effects, ; the last is much more common and easily spread throughout social institutions, such as mass media, that which is using stereotypes, based on the assumption , that they are well known to everyone and help the receivers to understand the content of the message. Stereotypes have a negative effect when it published throughout the mass media.
Stereotypes have been around for decades, and are still prominent today. In today’s society, everybody stereotypes one another, but will not admit that they do. Stereotypes can either be positive or negative. Usually stereotypes are used in a negative approach and can be degrading to an individual. Misconceptions are also used by individuals and can be harmful and unreasonable.
As for the Malays which consisted the majority and accounted for half of the populations, they have endless privileges. All of these privileges can be deemed as unfair to the ethnic minorities, and thus they may end up feeling inferior. For example, the Bruneian citizens who are mostly Malays could easily get free access to education. While at the same time, for the Chinese and Indians that are non-Bruneian, they had to make a certain amount of payment to get an education in Brunei. It showed that Brunei favored its people and consequently making other ethnic groups to have lesser gratification.
However, the same cannot be said for the past few decades. This is because of selfish politicians playing the controversial “race card” to gain support from a particular race. These selfish actions have worsened the relationships between races and affected the harmony that was once our nation’s pride and joy. Thus, it is our role as Malaysians to find new ways of promoting racial harmony, because honestly, who would want to live in a country where everyone hates each other?
In Malaysia they are several branches of government are created and power is shared between them. The one and other branch can challenge other branch and Executive branch is to mainly focus on how to execute the