Monday, September 25, 2006


If you have been following the local news for the past few days, you might have read about the spute being our leader and Malaysia.

It all started when our MM told a forum in Singapore that it was vital for Singapore, a predominantly ethnic Chinese state, to stand up to its bigger, mainly Muslim neighbours, Indonesia and Malaysia.

He made the following statement:

"Our neighbours both have problems with their Chinese. They are successful. They are hard-working and therefore they are systemically marginalised,"

Don't you think it is uncalled for? Whether the statement holds any truth is one matter, in the first place, what rights do you have to talk or criticise on other countries matters? Heard of 家有家规, 国有国法?

I liken this to Neighbour A telling others how her Neighbour B is mistreating one of her 3 kids, not giving that kid enough food to eat, pocket money to spend, freedom to play etc whereas the other 2 kids were allow all the incentives. Each family has its own rules and how do you feel, if your neighbours were to do the same, go around making comments on how you should run your family ?

Mahathir hits back with the following reply:

"You are not that clever. In a small group, perhaps you seem clever," Mahathir said, referring to Lee.

"But when (Lee) goes to China, the Chinese there don't want to listen to him. The Chinese in China don't think much of him and it is a fact that he is marginalized by Chinese in the world," Mahathir was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama.

"We should have an independent investigation on why the Malays are left behind in Singapore," Mahathir said. "They are pressured, marginalized and oppressed. That is the kind of government founded on the views of Lee Kuan Yew."

You may want to debate if the statement holds any truth or not but that is not the essence of the argument. My personal motto: "Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you".

You may say this is freedom of speech, why can't people make comments freely, well fine, then be willing to accept criticsm as well from others. Just mid this month, FEER was sued again for libel:


Beau Lotus said...

Haha it is true that if we want to comment freely about others we must also freely accept comments from others.

With less than 60% of its population made up of Malays, Malaysia is sensitive about what people say about/to its Chinese population. Old Lee shouldn't forget that he got Singapore kicked out of the Federation in 1965 because he was getting ambitious not only for Singapore but for Malaysia. You must say that he's a charming guy :-).

Anyway he should just leave them to their own problems. I can tell you that the Malaysian Chinese will not be grateful that he was speaking up for them. The rivalry between the 2 old neighbours is long-standing and goes all the way to whether their laksa is better or ours :-).

Anonymous said...

been in malaysia and singapore and i say that singapore had a really nice laksa and chicken rice .malaysian laksa and chicken rice arent not as good as singapore one, but take not malaysian people are very friendly compared to singaporean ...