IS SINGAPORE AN ILLEGITIMATE STATE CREATED BY THE BRITISH FROM LAND STOLEN FROM THE MELAYU AND JOHOR – FROM A MELAYU-MUSLIM SULTANATE TO A CHINESE REPUBLIC? – PART I.

By Mansor Puteh

(Note: Astro Awani provided the live transmission on the funeral service of Lee Kuan Yew starting from the time the casket bearing his remains is being taken from the Singapore Parliament House to the auditorium at the National University of Singapore and later to the Mandai Crematorium from 12.30 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. on 29 March, 2015.

His son was invited to give the first eulogy to his father followed by Singapore President Tony Tan and the other former members of the Kuan Yew cabinet, with three persons speaking in Mandarin, Melayu and then Tamil.

Hsien Loong became emotional a few times during his speech but he managed to regain his composure by taking a short break and drinking water to cool his throat, to even crack some jokes about his late father drawing the audience to laugh politely at them.

The American government sent a former president Bill Clinton who was among the sixteen leaders mostly from the Asean region and Asia who were there including Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe who must have cringed each time someone mentioned the Japanese Occupation and how Kuan Yew had survived it.

Kuan Yew said in a program on his life that was shown on the Discovery Channel and also on another program produced by Channel News Asia on Astro Awani, how he might have died if he had not lied to a Japanese officer who wanted to take him and the other Chinese boys, who would later be executed.)

This is a strange story of how an island which was part of the Sultanate of Johor could be established as a mere ‘trading post’ by an official of the East India Company (EIC) called Stamford Raffles who then installed an exile prince, Raja Hussain Shah a.k.a. Tengku Long to be the first Sultan of Singapore which then chased him out of the country and it could then become a British colony for which Lee Kuan Yew had to seek independence from Britain.

Who gave legitimacy to such acts which are clearly illegal?

Raffles can be described as a pirate. 

Singapore and all Singaporeans would have gained a lot more if the country had remained in the Federation of Malaysia.

But it would only turn Lee Kuan Yew into nothing but a state-level politician, much like Lim Kit Siang of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) today and he, Kuan Yew, would be chief minister of Singapore, a state in the Federation with probably Kit Siang having to make way for Kuan Yew to dominate the political scene in Barisan and with Kit Siang in it too.

Kit Siang and his son, Guan Eng and some others in the DAP would not be given the chance to be what they are today since the DAP would not become a reality. 

The Democratic Action Party (DAP) which is an offshoot of the PAP in Malaysia would thus have not existed and with it the sickening actions and attitudes of the younger members of the party as can be seen today.

Mahathir Mohammad was serious when he said Kuan Yew had wanted to be leader of a larger country and he had reasons to say so.

The country would still be a Melayu-Muslim-Malaysian state.

This is not an old story. It has been hidden for so long; only the descendants of Sultan Hussain Shah a.k.a. Tengku Long now living in Singapore and some parts of Malaysia and perhaps in some other countries would know.

But there is no way that they can do anything to it. They had been forced to leave Istana Kampung Gelam some years ago so they are now dispersed.

And the story is not fiction too. It is a fact that Singapore as we knew then was not meant to be an independent state.

One thing’s for certain is that Stamford Raffles did not ‘found’ Singapore. It had existed for hundreds of years earlier, and ruled by a line of rulers since the time of Sang Nila Utama.

Singaporeans including many Melayu in Singapore and Malaysia today may not know who Sang Nila Utama was. It was then called Temasik and later on Singapura or the Lion City.

Someone had seen a lion in the island and with the powers that he had then decided to rename the island Singapura.

And much later the British started to call it Singapore, mainly because of their arrogance in accepting local flavors and mostly because of their stiff lips – upper as well as lower – and mostly because their tongue which had been washed by too my liquor.

They blurted out Singapore when the natives told them, Singapura.

It was also not their duty to rename cities and countries, but to change most of the things that they caught sight on and most of the time they also changed the religion of the locals by force and least of all by persuasion.

So the ancestors of most of the Christians in Malaysia and Singapore were not coerced to accept the religion. Most of them were animists anyway.

Is Singapore an illegitimate state? Can be proven to be so? How?

When Stamford Raffles came to the region on behalf of a mere English India Company (EIC) which had its headquarters in Calcutta in India, now Kolkata, he discounted some places and finally chose Singapore, which to him then was inhabited.

And he soon learnt fast how a prince had been sidelined to take over the throne of the Sultanate of Johor (Johore, as he would have spelled it in English).

What his evil mind made him do was to get the prince called Raja Hussain Shah a.k.a. and known affectionately as Tengku Long who was then living in a self-imposed exile in Pulau Penyengat in Riau, south Singapore.

He got the prince to believe in his tall tale about how the English could install him as Sultan of Singappore of Sultan Singapura I, and he would be renamed Sultan Hussain Shah.

Raja Hussain or Tengku Long got excited and agreed to this ploy not knowing that Raffles had other unwritten or unspoken intention of establishing a mere ‘trading post’ which he knew and thought would become a new state under British colonial rule.

So Raffles offered Raja Hussain a lot of perks as Sultan.

Raffles then left in shame for London where he was chastised and had to live in shame for a host of things that he had done for the EIC.

His successor, William Farquhar, a more cunning person naturally knew how to handle Sultan Hussain Shah. He sidelined him and ignored him and also did not agree to meet with the agreement offered to him by the British under Raffles.

Sultan Hussain could not do much other than to sulk or ‘merajuk’ as the Melayu would say. And with ‘Julia’ the yacht belonging to the Sultan of Kedah who offered it to him so he could go to Melaka to live there in another self-imposed exile.

(‘Merajuk’ or to sulk is an old Melayu way of politely backing off from a possible physical encounter that early Melayu leaders were wont to do, to challenge and even to destroy those who had caused them to feel angry.

But Sultan Hussain did not feel angry or annoyed; he just made it known to the British and Farquhar that he was not pleased to be given such a shabby treatment from a mere British EIC official in Singapore whose predecessor, Raffles had pleaded with him to go out of his self-imposed exile to come to Singapore to be installed Sultan there.

Sultan Hussain or Raja Hussain then did not know how devious the British were, so he allowed his better judgment to be overruled by his bad one; or maybe he was hasty in wanting to be Sultan that he failed to realize that he was being made used of by Raffles.

He did not ask himself, how could the British and he install Raja Hussain Shah as Sultan of Singapore?

And he had to suffer greatly for his misjudgment not long later.)

So who or what gave the British legitimacy to say Singapore is their colony? There was no proof for them to grab the island and claim it as their own.

They installed a Sultan and then got rid of him and the whole island then became theirs.

Has Johor ever allowed that to happen? Legally Singapore is still very much a part of Johor.

Perhaps if the matter is taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Johor can reclaim the island back.