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" ,, ,, ' "" ,,; ' ' ' ' ,. ·i,' ' 'I, '' ,, ' I 1(, ' ,, '\ '' ' ,f) ' l ' );, ' ' " THE SEPARATION OF SINGAPORE FROM MALAYSIA THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST ASIA PROGRAM The Southeast Asia Program was organized at Cornell University in the Department of Far Eastern Studies in 1950. It is a teaching and research program of interdisciplinary studies in the humanities, social sciences and some natural sciences. It deals with Southeast Asia as a region, and with the individual countries of the area: Brunei, Burma. Caml1odia, Indonc�ia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The activities of the Program are carried on both at Cornell and in Southeast Asia. They include an undergraduate and graduate curriculum at Cornell which provides instruction by specialists in Southeast Asian cultural history and present-day affairs and offers intensive training in each of the major languages of the area. The Program sponsors group research pro­ jects on Thailand, on Indonesia, on the Philippines, and on the ·area's Chinese minorities. At the same time, individual staff and students of the Program have done field research in every Southeast Asian country. A list of publications relating to Southeast Asia which may be obtained on prepaid order directly from the Program is given at the end of this volume. Information on Program staff, fellowships, require­ ments for degrees, and current course offerings will be found in an Announcement of the Department of Asian Studies, obtainable from the Director, Southeast Asia Program, Franklin Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850. • • 11 THE SEPARATION OF SINGAPORE FROM MALAYSIA by Nancy McHenry Fletcher Data Paper: Number 73 Southeast Asia Program. Department of Asian Studies Cornell University, Ithaca, New York ,July, 1969 Price: $2.50 • • • 111 © 1969 CORNELL UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST ASIA PROGRAM First Printing, 1969 Second Printing, 1971 lV To. Skip V PREFACE Mrs. Fletcher's monograph on Singapore's separation from Malaysia is the first substantial study of this important development in the inter­ national relations of Southeast Asia. It is also a study of pertinent aspects of tl1e internal politics of Malaysia on the eve of the schism. She sets forth the very different expectations of Lee Kuan Yew and Tunku Abdul Rahman as to how the new Malaysian state should develop, and makes clear why their projections were so incompatible. In the process she assesses the economic, political and ethnic factors which in their combination tore the short-lived federal fabric apart. In her analysis of these factors her study is also instructive to an understandin� of some of those forces which were latef to emerge with such strength in Malaysia's recent (�fay 1969) elections. As Mrs. Fletcher makes clear in her introduction, this study is a first effort at analysing an unust1ally complex situation and is not to he regarded as in any sense c.lefiniti.ve. Nevertheless, she has provided, I helieve, a balanced and judiciously analyzed account which his the most comnrehensive11 yet puhlished,As a ' ands for w ich both those who fo o,v So t1 t he as t i i.nternational relations and those interested in its domestic politics will he in<lehtcd. George' McT. Kahin Cornell University Ithaca, �ew York July, 1969 • Vl ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author is especially grateful to Professor George McT. Kahin for his guidance, criticism, and encouragement throughout the early stages of the preparation of this study. She is grateful, too, to Miss Ruth McVey who, in the absence of Professor Kahin, kindly .agreed to assist in the final stages of its writing. The author would like to express her appreciation to the various members of the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for their aid and assistance. She is particularly indebted to Mr. Michael B. Leigh, Miss Chan Heng Chee, and Mr. Zainal Abidin, a visiting Malayan scholar. Certain members of the Washington·, D.C., offices of the United States Department of State, the Malaysian Embassy, the United States Information Agency, and the International Bank for R.econstruction and Development are also gratefully acknowledged for their time and for the information they provided. Vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 I . PRELUDE TO CONFLICT . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 4 II. THE ECONOMIC VARIANT • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 11 The Common Market . 12 Division of Singapore Revenue . 16 The Borneo Loan . 18 Other Financial and Economic Issues . 20 II I. THE POLITICAL VARIANT • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 26 Background . • . 26 Constitutional Framework ........... 29 The Singapore Election, 1963 .. ....... 31 The Malayan Election, 1964 .......... 32 UMNO in Singapore ............... 40 Th� Singapore Riots ............. 42 Truce . • • • • • • • • 45 The Political Dispute, Continued • • • • • • • 46 IV. THE RACIAL VARIANT • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 56 Issues . 57 Parti ci pant s . 6 0 The Dispute . 62 V. THE FOREIGN VARIANT . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 67 VI. CONTRIBUTING CONDITIONS . • • • • • • • • • • • • 72 Singapore Security ..... • • • • • • • • • 72 Other Factors . • • • • • • • • • 77 CONCLUSION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 78 BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 81 APPENDIX I. The Tunku's Speech on Singapore's Separation .......... • • • • • 91 APPENDIX II. Proclamation of Singapore • • • • • • • • 97 lX INTRODUCTION On September 16, 1963, after more than two years of dis­ cussion and preparation, the States of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, and Sabah joined together to form the federation of Malaysia. The motivations, objectives, and expectations tied up in the merger were as diverse as the land and people of the four units involved. Yet when Malaysia came into being, both Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaya, and Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of- Singapore, appeared to be deeply committed to the concept of Malaysia and to the new state which they had created. On August 9, 1965, the state of Singapore was separated from Malaysia. For the Tunku, the news of separation, which he announced to the Malaysian Parliament, was "the most 1 pain­ ful and heart-breaking news I have had to break_ .... "e For Lee, "it is a moment of anguish. All my life, my whole adult life, I have believed in merger and unity of the 2 two terri­ tories.... It broke everything we stood for."e It is. the purpose of this paper to investigate the nature of the tensions, pressures, and disputes which brought Malaysia from the hope of merger to the heart-break of sepa­ ration. It is impossible to determine and relate every as­ pect of the divisive dispute between the Federal government and politicians of Malaya on the one hand, and the politi­ cians and government of Singapore on the other. Moreover, the various elements of the conflict were so inter-related that any attempt to separate them for the purpose of analysis necessarily distorts them. This paper, then, is both incom­ plete and, in a sense, artificial. It is my hope, however, that it will help to make the conflicts which led to the· separation of Singapore from Malaysia at least a degree more comprehensible. Two basic premises concerning the split must be estab­ lished at the outset. First, the break decision was made by the Tunku alone. Second, the leaders of Singapore did not desire the separation of their state from Malaysia. 1. From the Tunku's separation speech, Straits Times, August 10, 1965. 2. From Lee's press conference, Straits Times, August 10, 1965. 1 2 It is clear that members of the Tunku's inner-cabinet endorsed the break decision before it was made public.t3 It is clear, too, that the words and actions of the Malay "ultras" in the Tunku's own United Malays National Organiza­ tion (UMNO), the dominant party in the ruling Alliance, helped to produce the environment in which the Tunku felt the break necessary. But it is exceedingly doubtful that either of these elements, as a unit or as individuals, had any direct part in the taking of the decision. All of the members of the inner-cabinet had worked with and under the Tunku for many years, and there is no evidence to 4 suggest that any of them urged the Tunku toward separation.t Moreover, had the Tunku followed the admonitions of the Malay "ultras,t" he probably would have taken repressive action against the lead­ ers of the Singapore government instead of removing the state from the federation. Indeed, one of the alleged leaders of the "ultra" faction, UMNO Secretary General Dato Jaffar Albar, resigned his party post following the break because of his disagreement with the Tunku on the separation issue.t5 The Tunku himself claimed that he had made the decision6 in late June, while convalescing