From Third World to First The Singapore Story pdfdrive com

Utusan Melayu
closed its
Singapore office and stopped circulating. Soon thereafter, newspapers published
in one territory could not be imported and sold in the other. It has remained so to
this day. Both governments recognised that there were such fundamental
differences of policy on race, language and culture that what was orthodoxy in
Singapore was sedition in Malaysia and vice versa.
By Malaysia’s National Day, 31 August 1970, the Tunku was sufficiently
weakened to announce his intention to give up his prime ministership. I felt sad
for him. It was not the way to bow out after 15 years, first as chief minister, then
prime minister, during which he had done much to bring Malaysia’s different
races together and had presided over much economic and social progress. He
deserved to go out with more glory. The 1969 race riots had destroyed his dream
of the happy Malaysia he had tried so hard to achieve. I was personally fond of
him. He was a gentleman – an old-world gentleman with his own code of
honour. He never let his close friends down. Although he did not include me
among them, I continued to meet him whenever he came to Singapore for the
horse races or when I visited Penang where he had retired. The last time was in
Penang a year before he died in 1990. He looked frail, but when I took my leave,
he saw me to the front porch and held himself up to have the press photograph us
as he sent me off.

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Razak, who took over as prime minister in September 1970, was a different
leader from the Tunku. He did not have the Tunku’s warm personality or his
large and commanding presence. By comparison he appeared less decisive.
Razak had been my contemporary at Raffles College from 1940 to 1942. He was
the son of a Pahang chieftain. In their hierarchical society, he was much
respected by the Malay students. Of medium build, with a fair, round face and
hair slicked down, he looked a quiet, studious man. He was bright and
hardworking. He was also a good hockey player, but ill at ease with people
unless he knew them well. During Malaysia, when we were competing for the
same votes, he eyed me with suspicion and unease. He probably considered me a
danger to Malay dominance and political supremacy. He preferred to deal with
Keng Swee with whom he was comfortable. Razak did not consider Keng Swee
a rival competing for votes. Once Singapore was out of Malaysia, Razak was
more at ease with me. I was no longer a competitor for votes.
He and other UMNO Malay leaders rejected the Tunku’s approach to
Chinese businessmen as out-of-date. Having experienced total power, both
political and military, they were now completely open about their economic
policies that favoured the bumiputra (sons of the soil – indigenous Malays) in
every sector. They implemented the New Economic Policy “to eradicate
poverty” and to have “greater equality in the ownership of wealth”. Malays were
by regulation and administration to own 30 per cent of all private capital by the
year 1990, the Chinese and Indian population were to own 40 per cent and the
foreign owners (mostly British) were to be reduced to 30 per cent. Razak also
announced a national ideology, the 
Rukunegara
, that people of all races should
advance together towards a just and progressive society through belief in God,
loyalty to king and country, upholding the constitution and the rule of law and
the promotion of moral discipline, tolerance and mutual respect. It was August
1970, more than a year after the race riots, before they lifted all remaining
curfews and allowed political activities to resume. But sedition had assumed an
extended meaning to include any challenge to the