What really happened in KL 45 years
ago?
Now that the festivities for the
National Day is over, it may be an appropriate time to re-visit, in
a more sober manner, the matter of how Singapore gained its
independence four-and-a-half decades ago.
Singaporeans, young and old, have been told that it was Malaysia
who had kicked us out of the federation in 1965 after the late
Tunku Abdul Rahman, then prime minister of Malaysia, felt it was no
longer viable – even dangerous – for Singapore to remain as part of
the country.
A young and teary eyed Lee Kuan Yew who was then prime minister of
Singapore (his title itself seemed out of place as it was difficult
to see how one country could have two prime ministers) mourned the
expulsion: "For me it is a moment of anguish. All my life... my
whole adult life...I have believed in merger..."
There have been some revelations since that fateful day that raise
questions about some long-held notions about the split.
Author T J S George, for example, recounted in his
book Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore published in 1974
that the Tunku was more surprised than he was moved when he saw Mr
Lee in tears over the break-up. The Tungku said: "I don't know why
Mr Lee acted like that...he was quite pleased about [the
split]."
Mr George added that Mr Lee had gone to Kuala Lumpur himself to see
the Malaysian prime minister about Singapore's stormy relations
with its neighbour. A day later, he called some of his cabinet
colleagues (the late) S Rajaratnam, then Minister for Culture, and
Dr Toh Chin Chye, former deputy prime minister and the founding
chairman of the PAP.
Mr Lee had called for them to meet him in Kuala Lumpur. The author
writes that Mr Lee arranged it so that his two ministers did not
travel together. The question is why. Unless Mr Lee did not want
them to anticipate the development and to discuss the matter?
Whatever it was, Dr Toh was, just like the Tungku, befuddled when
he saw Mr Lee's anguished TV reaction to the split: "I don't know
why he was crying."
Dr Toh, other than Mr Lee, is the sole survivor of the meeting in
Kuala Lumpur. He is privy to all the goings-on when the decision
was made for Singapore and Malaysia to go separate ways. If anyone
knows what's going on, it is him.
But the former deputy prime minister isn't talking and will
probably carry the secret to his grave. Dr Toh had a falling out
with Mr Lee Kuan Yew in the 1980s and was relegated to to the
backbench. In fact Dr Toh had subsequently thrown his support
behind Mr Francis Seow when the former solicitor-general contested
as an opposition candidate in the 1988 elections.
More
recently, The Online
Citizen reported that Mr Lee had warned
the press not to print pictures of him
smilingwhen he made the announcement of the
separation.
That's an odd threat. Why would Mr Lee be afraid of being
photographed smiling if he was sorrowful?
Most recently at Dr Goh Keng Swee's funeral, the Minister Mentor
revealed that it was Goh who had carried out negotiations with
Malaysia and that it was Goh who had made the decision to take
Singapore out of the federation.
But Goh was not the prime minister. How is
it that he became the one to conduct the negotations leading to the
separation? A journalist asked why Mr Lee
revealed this piece of information only when Goh was dead
(see here).
Clearly the story that Malaysia kicked Singapore out of the union
and the role Mr Lee played in it is a lot more complex than what we
have been told thus far. Questions abound but, unfortunately,
answers are not forthcoming.
http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/4016-what-really-happened-in-kl-45-years-ago
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/07/do-not-print-pictures-of-me-smiling-lee-kuan-yew/
You ask a gal like me in my early 20s and most of the young
singaporeans, they dun even want to give a damn what happen 45
years ago, so give us more of what the present and the future hold
and stop telling us grandpa stories ya
