http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/breaking-views/28432-lky-visits-malaysia-not-for-nostalgia--the-malaysian-insider
The Malaysian Insider, 3 Jun 2009
LKY visits Malaysia, not
for nostalgia — The Malaysian Insider
UNE 3 — Lee Kuan Yew — the father of modern Singapore —
will visit Malaysia next week,
touring several states and meeting with a number of Malaysian
leaders and senior journalists in what has been billed as a trip
down memory lane.
But there is nothing nostalgic about the trip for the
longest-serving Singapore prime minister, senior minister and now
minister mentor. He has been at the helm of Singapore since 1959,
brought Singapore to form Malaysia and cried when it had to go
independent in 1965.
His week-long visit is packed
with meetings from the start in Kuala Lumpur where he meets MCA
president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat on Monday.
A day later, he will meet Prime
Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri
Muhyiddin Yassin, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Umno vice-presidents
and Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. And some editors
of major Malaysian media.
Kuan Yew then moves to Ipoh to
meet Perak Ruler Sultan Azlan Shah and Mentri Besar Datuk Seri
Zambry Abdul Kadir despite the political impasse in
the silver state. His trip
continues to Penang where he will pay a visit to Penang Chief
Minister Lim Guan Eng and other leaders of the DAP,
an off-shoot of his People's Action Party (PAP) after Singapore
left the federation in 1965.
The octogenarian will then cross the peninsula to the Malay
heartland and meet Kelantan
Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat and the Kelantan
regent.
It will be his first face-to-face meeting with Nik Aziz, the PAS
spiritual leader and Kelantan mentri besar for the past 19 years.
It is a recognition by Singapore of the growing importance of the
Islamist party in Malaysia.
Kuan Yew will also pay a courtesy
call on Pahang's Sultan Ahmad Shah and the Mentri Besar Datuk Seri
Adnan Yaakob.
Lightweight tourism for old times' sake it is not.
What is clear is that Kuan Yew
wants to feel the pulse of the country that became
Malaysia on his 40th birthday in 1963 and figure out if the political landscape will be
altered drastically after the next general
elections.
The unprecedented win by the opposition pact in Election 2008 where
Islamists and secularists came together on a common platform to
capture four more states and break Barisan Nasional's two-thirds
parliamentary majority was clearly a shock to Singapore which has
only known PAP rule since independence.
Much of that victory has been
credited with a younger population and politicians who are savvier
in connecting with them, using the Internet to overcome the mass
and mainstream media controlled by the government. Much the same as
in Singapore.
And since Election 2008, Singapore politicians have been wondering
whether the strong showing by the Pakatan Rakyat is sustainable or
whether Umno will be able to recover lost ground and triumph in the
next polls.
So what happens in Malaysia is very important for Singapore, which
is sandwiched between two Asean giants Malaysia and Indonesia, and
has been derisively called a little red dot by some Malaysian
leaders.
And of utmost importance to Kuan Yew whose pessimism about
Singapore survival after being asked to leave Malaysia fuelled his
determination to turn the city-state without any natural resources
into one of the most developed port and financial hubs in the
world.
He is someone that Malaysia can learn from. The only thing is, Lee Kuan Yew is in
Malaysia to learn, for his country's
future.
-----------------
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