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Utusan Melayu
, the Jawi
(Arabic script) newspaper circulating in both countries, to work up Malay
sentiment against the “Chinese” government of Singapore. The
Utusan Melayu
reported that Ahmad Haji Taff, an UMNO leader in Singapore, one of
Singapore’s two former senators to the federal senate, had demanded that our
constitutional commission write into the Singapore constitution special rights for
the Malays. These special rights were in the Malaysian constitution but had
never applied to Singapore.
Our news division translated the
Utusan’s
inflammatory, racist statements
into English, Chinese and Tamil, and reported them over radio and television
and in the press. This hurt UMNO leaders with non-Malays both in Singapore
and Malaysia. Ismail and Ghazali complained about this. It was subverting
Malaysia, said Ismail, and there could be no economic cooperation until there
was political disengagement. We should not interfere in their internal affairs as
we were a separate sovereign and independent nation. Ghazali went a step
further, claiming that Malaysia had a special relationship with Singapore. He
was disappointed they were not informed of our trade agreements with Russia
and other communist countries. (Malaysia did not have any such agreements
with communist countries.) He thought these came within the ambit of our
agreement with Malaysia for economic cooperation and defence, that neither
side would take any steps or enter into any treaty or agreements which would
jeopardise the other’s defence. I pointed out that he could not expect these
courtesies without reciprocating them.
Ghazali also wanted us to wait until they had restored relations with
Indonesia before we resumed barter trade with them. He insisted that we allow
only big ships of over 200 tons into our main harbour and turn away all smaller
vessels, especially sailing boats, on security grounds. Our Special Branch, now
renamed Internal Security Department (ISD), had reported that the Malaysians
themselves were openly doing barter trade on the west coast of Malaya, allowing
small sailing craft from Sumatra to come into Johor and Malacca ports. To
discuss the matter, Keng Swee asked for a meeting of the Combined Defence
Council which had been set up after our independence. They fixed a date, but to
his surprise the meeting was called off, because, the Malaysians claimed, we had
accepted their proposal. We went ahead and designated Pulau Senang, an island
at the southernmost point of Singapore, as a centre for Indonesian barter traders
who came in their sailing ships from as far away as Sulawesi (Celebes). Razak
objected strenuously. Their unilateral decision-making and overbearing demands
made us resign from the Combined Defence Council.
An endless flotilla of small craft, some with outboard motors, others with
sails, brought in Indonesian crude rubber, copra, charcoal and other produce.
They departed with transistor radios, shirts, trousers, slippers, shoes, jackets and
hats. Some even bought whole boxes of bread to take back. In August 1966,
after Confrontation had officially ended in June, we cancelled all restrictions on
barter trade. Indonesian small craft once again came to Telok Ayer Basin, one of
Singapore’s oldest harbours.
The pressures following separation were relentless. There was never a dull
moment in our relations with Malaysia. Despite our best efforts we could not
reach agreement on retaining our common currency, and the two governments
announced in August 1966 that from June 1967 we would issue separate
currencies. So would Brunei, which had shared the common currency, a legacy
of British rule. The Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, representing
British companies, the Council of the Association of Banks in Malaysia and the
Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce were all worried by the uncertainty
of a split and appealed to both governments to negotiate again to maintain a
common currency.
Tan Siew Sin, the Malaysian finance minister, said the split would not mean
the end of the world. He argued that the concessions he had made to
accommodate Singapore involved a significant derogation of sovereignty on the
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