“Singapore’s Separation from the Federation Was Inevitable.” How Far Do You Agree with This Statement? Discuss.

“Singapore’s Separation from the Federation Was Inevitable.” How Far Do You Agree with This Statement? Discuss.

Question) “Singapore’s separation from the federation was
inevitable.” How far do you agree with this statement? Discuss.

I agree with this statement to a large extent as during the two years
when Singapore was part of Malaysia as there was an irreconcilable
political difference between PAP and UMNO. Malaysia also thought of
Singapore as an economical rival. The only thing that kept the two
parties together for that very 2 years was because Singapore thought
that by uniting with Malaya, communism problems would be
automatically resolved, Malaya thought so too. Therefore I agree to a
large extent that Singapore’s separation from the federation was
inevitable.

Political difference between PAP and UMNO was one of the reasons why
separation between the federation, Malaysia, and Singapore was
unavoidable. PAP was against UMNO’s policy of special rights for the
Malays as this would result in the Singaporean Malays to take UMNO’s
side. This would lead to the Malays of Singapore to vote UMNO in the
upcoming elections and PAP would lose against UMNO. PAP also did not
like the idea of prejudice against the other racial groups such as
Chinese and Indians, there was no underlying reason why Malays could
do certain things or receive more than the Chinese or Indians.
Therefore, leaving Malaysia would help to protect the political
interest of Singapore.

Another reason why separation between Singapore and the federation
was inescapable was because of the economic rivalry between Malaysia
and Singapore. Singapore was doing much better than Malaysia in
economy because it had the most popular port in the whole of South-
East Asia. Singapore was earning more than Malaysia thought she would
and this was affecting and threatening Malaysian business. This
rivalry made it even harder to maintain a good relationship with
Malaysia as there...

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