YOURSAY | 'Dr M can't change; he still uses his old tricks to strike fear into the Malay psyche.'

S'pore minister questions 'Malays in neighbouring country' reference in Dr M's poem

Apanakdikato: Malaysia and Singapore started on nearly the same footing more than 60 years ago. In fact, Singapore was more at a disadvantage because they had no natural resources.

Today, Malaysia is still talking about racial and religious politics. The Singapore dollar is over three times the strength of the ringgit. Singapore has integrated its multiracial society very well and has become an international model.

Their economic and education standards are decades ahead of Malaysia. Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad should have been looking south to Singapore as a role model, not looking east to Japan.

Ferdtan: This is a reason why an aged politician like Mahathir must retire for younger leaders to take over. He can't change; he still uses his old tricks to strike fear into the Malay psyche.

His favourite demon used to be DAP, often used to strike terror into the souls of Malays - that the Chinese are taking over the country. Now since DAP leaders are tacitly “supporting him”, he is now casting his evil spell elsewhere to another demon. Who else but a Chinese-majority Singapore as a bogeyman?

Singapore with only 15 percent Malays has a Malay head of state - a president. Malaysia with the Chinese making up some 23 percent of its population at present can’t even dream of having one state with a Chinese governor in non-monarch states like Penang and Malacca (not including Sarawak and Sabah).

The only one Chinese governor after Merdeka was Leong Yew Koh as Malacca governor from Aug 31, 1957 to Aug 30, 1959. Are the Malays still fearful of the Chinese or other non-Malays taking over the country? Where's the logic?

Stop race-baiting to get votes. If you, Mahathir, are as good as they say - then campaign and lead by fair means and not by foul means by spreading fear among the uninformed rural Malays.

Vijay47: Unless the seas wash away Singapore or Malaysia, that little Red Dot to the south will forever remain a sharp thorn in Mahathir’s flesh, the poison coursing through his veins. Both pains, needless to say, of his own making and imagination.

Two facets of Singapore’s being, that bring him agony and sleepless nights, are first, that the good-for-nothing-with-nothing island is heads and shoulders above Malaysia in progress and development.

This is not to say that Singapore is without its shortcomings, but every immaculate road and towering skyscraper, every HDB (Housing and Development Board) block, is tangible evidence of how Mahathir destroyed his own country. Try a 1MDB or Solar Energy Project there and you will be enjoying hospitality at Hotel Changi even before the udang galah is served.

At the beginning of the race, we were together at the starting blocks, but look where we are now – Singapore a distant blip, Malaysia after two steps stumbling on its face. And the ringgit and the Singapore dollar? Like the ringgit and the rupiah in reverse.

Second, and perhaps worse, is that Malay Singaporeans seem extremely contented, from Woodlands to Sentosa, Tuas to Tampines. We do not see hordes applying for citizenship in this bumiputera haven which, after 63 years, Mahathir still is on an odyssey to protect and defend. On his map, a Singapore cabinet with ample Indian and Malay representation must be an abomination.

Damn that damn island, they even teach English there.

Kunta Kinte: Indeed, when we separated from Singapore, we were, in many ways, ahead of Singapore. We had a reputable university, an international airline, and an abundance of resources compared to Singapore, which only had sunlight as a natural resource.

If our government had been more efficient, trustworthy, clean, practised meritocracy, and not so immersed in our own race and religion, Singapore would have wanted to rejoin Malaysia.

IndigoKite6964: So long as race and religion are at the centre of politics, you can be assured we are heading into a disaster. To be clear, I don't really care which race and which religion. However, in Malaysia, it has always been prominently Malay and Islam.

For those of us who are neither Malay nor Muslim, it is heartbreaking that we have wasted so much effort, time, and money on these topics, rather than on the more critical issues about the progress of our country… this is why Singapore is ahead.

Tok Jangut: People should read the poem in its entirety. The Singapore minister (Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam) just quoted the two lines out of context.

When Mahathir was in power, the minister was just a mouse.

Kepala Tak Centre: Maybe Mahathir was talking about the Malays in southern Thailand who prefer to identify as Thai. Or perhaps in Indonesia, where the regional natives prefer to be identified by their sub-ethnic groups.

Like Javanese as Javanese, Minang as Minang, and so on. In Singapore, the Malays there identify themselves as Banjar, Javanese, Boyanese, etc.

That is what Mahathir might be talking about in his poem so, the poem is actually useless.

Restless_Native: The Malays in Singapore are proud people, justifiably so. When I worked there a few decades ago, my team comprised largely of Malay technicians and supervisors. They called me a 'Federation Guy' when I first joined them.

Over time, I grew to respect their hard work and willingness to learn the technicalities of work and prove themselves. I promoted a couple of them based on their work compared to their peers who also included some Chinese Singaporean technicians.

A representative of one Malaysian company I engaged with (an Indian), for the fieldwork in Singapore, expressed how impressed he was with the Malay techs in my team.

He stated that the maintenance work we did on the big machinery we worked on would have taken 2.5 times as long to overhaul and put back in service, based on his experience in Port Dickson. This is the fundamental difference between a merit-based system and a privilege-based system.

Mahathir institutionalised racism, nepotism, kleptocracy, and self-interest in his tenure. Now, he disdains his own, "What's in it for me" ethos that he entrenched in his 'glory days'. What a hypocrite!

Just go away and spend your remaining years making peace with those you persecuted and do charity work. You may yet, salvage a sliver of Allah's graces, if you did that, instead of running for office again.

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