Singapore separation from Malaysia
It’s not often that territories are kicked out of countries. Most nations will often go to great lengths to make sure that they keep hold of as much land and as many people as humanly possible. Singapore separation from Malaysia begins
Yet in 1965 this very thing happened to Singapore when it was ejected from Malaysia. Given how rare willingly losing a bit of land is throughout human History. The obvious question is why why was Singapore such a geographically important region kicked out of Malaysia.
After 2nd World WAR
So after the Second World War Southeast Asia was in a place of flux. Many of the areas imperial powers were struggling to reassert their authority there. This was because throughout the war these areas had been occupied by Japan and the Japanese had made sure to place them under the control of the native people.
At the end of the war the Europeans returned and had wanted everything to go back to normal but from fact know one example is Britain. As of 1948 Britain Southeast Asian colonies were the Federation of Malaya Singapore Sarawak Brunei and North Borneo.
September 1963
Despite Britain’s best efforts though by September 1963. All of these colonies barring Brunei were independent and all of these independent states opted to join the brand-new Malaysia in the same year. For some it was fear of communist takeover that pushed them into Union.
For Singapore It was about giving it access to larger markets to increase its wealth. Also Malaysia wasn’t Britain which seemed like a step in the right direction for Singapore. Yet a mere two years after joining Malaysia Singapore was out. But why well the reason was primarily political.
Malaysian Politics
Malaysian politics at this time was dominated by the Malaysian solidarity convention. A coalition of right-wing parties led b Tunku Abdul Rahman that represented Malaysia’s largest ethnic groups. Whereas Singaporean politics was monopolized but the People’s Action Party which was a more centrist multi-ethnic party headed by Lee Kuan Yew.
Now both sides had rushed into this union because fear of communism and both immediately ran to major issues. The first was that Malaysia operated on a system called Malaysian . Malaysia which discriminated against those who weren’t ethnically Malaysian.
The second was that the central government based in Kuala lumper was sure to clamp down on any idea of Singapore. Maintaining any real autonomy because it was afraid that Singapore would become the nation’s heart.
Malaysian Federal Election 1964
As such the PAP despite promising not to opted to run in the 1964 federal election against the MSC. Now the PAP was crushed but the fact that it ran on a platform of ending racial discrimination worried the MSC. The reason being that about 30 to 35 percent of Malaysia’s population was ethnically Chinese and this voting bloc could have kept the MSE out of power.
In fact the only reason why most Chinese Malaysians voted for the MSC was the threat that any attempt to rewrite the system in place would lead to the government joining Indonesia to keep the Chinese out of power forever. Another step to Singapore separation from Malaysia.
Ramen Idea
As such Ramen came up with a brilliant idea. Let’s just kick Singapore out tensions continue to rise and culminated in a series of race riots in Singapore whose population was overwhelmingly Chinese.
You should know though that this wasn’t some quick unilateral decision and there were many months of discussions between both sides. Most Singaporean leaders wish to remain a part of Malaysia but some like go Kang’s we wanted to have much looser agreement.
The Malaysian government said no and so Swee pushed for Singapore to leave Malaysia all together. The deadlock continued in tensions rose further.
Ramen Victory
And So, Ramen went to the Malaysian Parliament and pushed for a vote on simply expelling Singapore which he won unanimously.
On August the 9th 1965 the Singaporean representatives reluctantly declared independence. And thereafter Singapore would be an independent nation. One which then became incredibly wealthy so it sort of worked out in the end.
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