Notes

What are the reasons for merger and separation between Singapore and Malaya?
In 1959, Singapore decided to merge with the federation of Malaya. Tunku Abdul Rahman, the prime minister of Malaya at that time, was not keen on merging at all! Because of the state that Singapore was in. During that time Singapore was a communist state and Malaya had just battled communism as an internal war for 11 years. And Tunku was afraid that if Malaya merged with Singapore, communist influence in Singapore may spill over Malaya and he was also worried as Singapore had too many Chinese, and may upset the racial balance. However there were many reasons for the merger, but, it all came down to the two major points, Political and Economic Reasons. The political reasons for merger were, firstly, to gain independence from the British. Singapore was colonized by the British and had suffered many years from the time of before the Japanese occupation to during and to after the Japanese occupation. However, the proposal for independence was rejected two time. First, it was rejected during the first Merdeka talks in 1956,23 April-15 May led by David Marshall. The second time it was rejected, it was the post of chief minister was taken over by Lim Yew Hok. And he went to London to ask for independence in 1957 11 March to 11 April. But he did not succeed. Therefore, that leads us to our second political reason, which is to fulfil the PAP's promise that was made towards the locals during the 1959 elections. The PAP promised the locals that they would achieve independence for the country. Now, that the locals have voted them to be the government, they will have to fulfil their promise or, the locals would lose their trust in PAP. Lastly, Singapore wanted to be free from communists threats, and the only to do so, was to merge with Malaya. the PAP believed that if Singapore joined Malaya, Malaya could suppress communism as they are a strong-anti communism country and have strong and large armies. The Economic reasons for merger were because of the situation that Singapore was in. Singapore lacked natural resources. However Malaya had many natural resources like palm oil, tin, rubber and was known as the world's number 1 exporter, thus, by merging, Singapore could tap on their resources. Singapore also had slow economic growth: declining entrepot trade, increasing unemployment as there was a growing population and Singapore needed/ required jobs.Lastly, there was also declining trade due to tariffs introduced by Malaya on goods traded between the 2 countries. And so merger can increase the trade and industries, job opportunities and economic growth for Singapore. If Singapore and Malaya merges, there can be a common market whereby the goods produced in Singapore can enter Malaya without having to pay taxes and goods can be brought and sold freely in the common market. This will thus lead to an increase of trade, expansion of industries and in turn, can create more jobs for Singaporeans. Not only Singapore had reasons to join Malaya. Malaya had political reasons to join Singapore too! They wanted to join Singapore for security. Tunku wanted to avoid the situation whereby , Singapore becomes a communist state and gives trouble to Malaya. As the communist would probably want to use Singapore as a base to spread communism to Malaya. But merging with Malaya was not easy because there were different political demands and economic demands from both Singapore and Malaya, and also konfrontasi from the neighboring countries. Sabah and Sarawak and Singapore joined the federation of Malaya and formed Malaysia. However along the way, Singapore and Malaya had disputes between them which soon lead to a separation. Singapore and Malaya both had different views and ways on how they managed the countries. Singapore politics were on multiracial in outlook and Malaysia politics were on communal politics. The first dispute is during the 1963 Singapore Elections. The trouble was ultimately started by the UMNO and PAP. After the merger, Singapore was going to have their elections. And so the PAP told Tunku not to get involved and interfere in their elections. However, they came to take part and Tunku made trouble. The United Malay National Organization (UMNO), Malay Indian Congress (MIC) and Malay Chinese Association (MCA) came together and formed a Singapore Alliance Party to challenge PAP. But they did not win any seat. Therefore, the UMNO became unhappy because it meant that they were not popular in Singapore. They vowed that they will re-organize the Singapore Alliance Party and defeat the PAP in the next election. When the news travelled to the PAP, the comments affected their relationship in a negative way. The second dispute was the 1964 Federal elections, where Tunku told the PAP not to take part as the PAP believes in multi-racialism and equality but Malaysia believes in communalism so their interests conflicts each other. However, PAP still participated in the 1964 Federal elections of Malaysia and their campaign attracted large crowds and PAP won 1 seat(Devan Nair), and the alliance party won 89/104 seats. Even though the alliance party won, but they were very unhappy and upset with PAP because they felt politically challenged and threatened. Thus the alliance party started an anti-PAP campaign using media(newspaper) to spread rumors to Malays to spoil PAP's reputation. This thus further strained and created more tensions between the PAP and alliance party. The third dispute that happened was the 1964 Racial Riots. it happened in Singapore around geylang during the celebration of prophet Muhammad's birthday in July 1964 a lot to the Malays because it was the highest prophet for Muslims. There was a clash between the Chinese policemen and Malays.An ultra Chinese threw a pig head(unclean animal for the Muslims) into the crowd of Malays which caused a huge fight especially when the Chinese policemen tried to stop them. Moreover the policemen were Chinese so it made things worst. 36 were injured,556 were killed and 3000(estimated)were arrested. The last dispute was when the Malaysian Solidarity convention was created. It was a political party formed by the PAP and other Malaysian political parties who opposed the alliance party. The main aim was to create a "Malaysian Malaysia" but these were seen as a challenge to the alliance party and caused further strains in their relationship. Thus Singapore and Malaysia decided to separate. The political and economic reasons for separation are as such. The political reasons are, firstly, the differences in political ideology where Malaysia supports the communalism idea while Singapore supported the multiracialism idea. Malaysia thought that since Singapore was merging with them, they would follow their political system. The Malaysia had three main political groups which stand for their own race like United Malay National Organization(UMNO), Malay Indian Congress(MIC) and lastly the Malay Chinese Association(MCA). while Singapore only had PAP. The second political reason are the different treatment of races. In Malaysia, the Malays get a better treatment compared to the other races and they are given special privileges and rights to help them improve their standards of living. Wherever in Singapore, everyone is treated the same regardless of race language or religion. The last political reason is the political rivalry between the alliance party and PAP which can be seen in the 1963 Singapore Elections, 1964 Federal Elections, 1964 Racial Riots and Malaysian Solidarity Convention. The economic reasons for separation was because Singapore felt that it had not enough economic benefits and the central government delayed the setting up the common market. there was also introduction of new taxes by the central government from the initial 40% to 60% and Singapore felt that this was an unfair decision. Not only those, but Singapore was now seen as an economic rival to Malaysia. This political and economic difference led to disagreements and increased tensions between the alliance party and PAP.