originally posted by arapahoe:
In this trip who do you think is the most important person he is
going to visit ? and Why?
I will tell you my take --- Lim Guan Eng.
i think it could be mca president datuk seri ong tee keat for he is
the 1st person lee will be meeting on this trip.
The first person MM LKY will meet is PM Najib.
It will be against common sense and diplomatic protocol to
meet first with the MCA President - Datuk Seri Ong Tee
Kiat, as he is only a secondary partner in the Barisan Nasional
coalition.
According to the
The Star – online Saturday, June 6, 2009 - MM LKY will
also meet with "several high level officials, top editors and
politicians" - which includes the DPM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
- before moving off to his next stop in Perak, Penang,
Kelantan and Pahang.
KUALA LUMPUR: Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew,
Singapore's first Prime Minister, is to visit Malaysia next week to
tour several states and meet with a number of Malaysian leaders,
businessmen, opinion leaders and senior journalists.
His eight-day visit,starting from Monday until June 15, starts with
a meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak as
well as with several high-level officials, top editors and
politicians.
Officials from both countries say the 85-year-old Lee is also
scheduled to meet Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as
well as Umno politicians and old friends in what some regard as a
trip down memory lane.
It is learnt that the Singaporean media will be sending a big group
of journalists to cover Lee's visit, which will take him to Perak,
Penang, Kelantan and Pahang.
Lee is scheduled to visit Ipoh and have an audience with the Sultan
of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah, and call on Menteri Besar Datuk Seri
Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.
He will then travel to Penang where he will call on Chief Minister
Lim Guan Eng and then cross over to Kelantan in the east coast.
Lee is scheduled to have an audience with the Regent of Kelantan,
Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra, and call on Menteri Besar Datuk Nik
Abdul Aziz Nik Mat in what is believed to be their first
face-to-face meeting.
Lee will then proceed south to Pahang where he will have an
audience with Sultan Ahmad Shah and call on Mentri Besar Datuk Seri
Adnan Yaakob.
Lee's son, Hsien Loong, the current prime minister of Singapore, is
expected to visit Kuala Lumpur soon.
Political analysts believe the elder Lee's visit to Malaysia will
be more than just "a trip down memory lane" as he is known to be a
person who always keeps abreast of developments, particularly in
gauging the scenario of the place which shares its history with
Singapore. As Prof Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin points out, Lee
is a person who understands very well the relationship between the
two countries, as he had a part in the history of the formation of
Malaysia and the separation of Singapore from Malaysia.
"The visit can be viewed as an endorsement for (Prime Minister)
Najib as Lee is known as a person who deeply believes that if
Malaysia is not stable, it will affect Singapore," he says.
"Najib is the son of (Malaysia's second Prime Minister) Tun Abdul
Razak while Lee and Tun Abdul Razak were peers, having done law
together in London ... another layer of relationship.
"I know Lee is very concerned with what is happening in Malaysia as
anything that happens here will affect Singapore. Things that shape
Malaysia will shape Singapore," says Prof
Shamsul Amri, who will be among those Lee is expected to meet
during his visit.
He says Lee has likened situations in Malaysia and Singapore to the
"umbilical cord" which connects the two countries.
Prof Shamsul Amri says that before Lee makes any statement, he will
have given it deep thought as he is not the kind of leader who
likes to make popular statements.
"If you look at his speeches, you know that he has a lot of
information at his disposal," he adds.
Another political analyst, Dr Oh Ei Sun, believes that Lee will be
taking stock of the latest developments in Malaysia during the
visit besides looking at ways to improve bilateral relations,
something which he often does when he travels abroad.
"He will be meeting different strata of society. He is more or less
advisor to the government. He not only advises the Singapore
government. Sometimes he also offers his advice to the country he
visits," he says.
Malaysia and Singapore had a difficult relationship when Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad was the Malaysian prime minister while during the
era of his successor, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the relationship
grew a bit warmer, he says.
"Now Najib has taken over. Kuan Yew is an old acquaintance of
Najib's father (Tun Abdul Razak). Perhaps he will take this
opportunity to look into ways to improve the relationship. I think
this trip will bring the relationship closer," he adds. -
Bernama
The
Malaysia-Singapore Politics of the 60s – Politics of Race : The
Ultras
The present Malaysian PM Najib's father - Tun Abdul Razak who
was a DPM when Singapore was part of Malaysia under the Malaysian
PM Tunku Abdul Rahman - had understood the threat of the Malay
politician that agitated and advocated for the
singular dominance of the Malay Race in Malaysian Politics -
'Ketuanan Melayu'.
Immediately after the May 13, 1964 racial riots that broke out
in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore - Tun Abdul Razak and the Home
Minister Ismail Abdul Rahman did not hesistate to
take immediate actions to throw out the extremist Malay
Politicians whom LKY had labelled them as "Ultras".
Those who were thrown out of UMNO in
1963 were Mohammed Mahathir who had written the book
'The Malay Dilemma' and later to become Malaysia's
fifth PM, and also a Malay radical in Musa Hitam
(who served recently as a Human Rights Commissioner).
The other Ultras that remained in the Malaysian political
scene included Syed Jaafar Albar (the father of the recent
axed-Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar), and Syed Nasir
Ismail - both were accused for igniting the 1964 racial
riots in Singapore.
It was these tensions stoke up by the insistence of the
Malay politicians demanding a singular monopoly
in politics and a dominant economic role as well that caused
fault lines to be deepen, and continue to this day in Malaysian
politics.
MM LKY's trip to Malaysia - at this early stage of PM
Najib's taking over as the PM of Malaysia is seen by Malaysian
political observers - to be an endorsement to PM Najib's position
in Malaysian politics, as his position was clouded by the messy
trial of the Mongolian Model murder case that remain inconclusive
to this day.