MELAYU RAYA COULD HAVE CAUSED SINGAPORE NOT TO EXIST AS WHAT IT IS TODAY.

…CHANCES ARE LEE KUAN YEW WOULD ONLY BE A STATE MINISTER OF SINGAPORE WITH SINGAPORE HAVING A GOVERNOR, AND A MELAYU ONE AT THAT LIKE LIM GUAN ENG OF PULAU PINANG.   

By Mansor Puteh

If not for his Baba background, Lee Kuan Yew would not be what he had been, being able to go deeper into the psyche of the Melayu in Singapore and Tanah Melayu or Malaya then, and being able to speak fluent Melayu which also gave him a good advantage over the other Chinese leaders.

If he had been just like the other Chinese, chances are he might not be able to speak in Melayu to be able to mix with them a lot more and thus became just like the other Chinese leaders in Singapore who were not Baba or Straits-born Chinese.

But once he thought he did not have any need to master Melayu, he forgot it so much so that he admitted to not being able to converse fluently in it, because he did not have anyone to speak in the language to.

How could he not have anyone in Singapore to not being able to speak in the language? He ca+n use it by reading Berita Harian there like what his son, Hsien Loong continues to do till today and who occasionally speaks in the language and giving his national day speech in it too.

If Melayu Raya was successful chances are Kuan Yew would be as fluent in Melayu as Sukarno and Tunku were.

Indonesian President Mohammad Sukarno was right in wanting to form or create Melayu Raya, to combine Indonesia with Malaysia.

Kuan Yew was wrong to want to establish a Malaysian Malaysia, a concept to many Melayu is nothing but a sick ploy to diminish Melayu rule in Tanah Melayu and creating a Malaysia like Singapore today, which has almost become a colony of China with the many Chinese workers living in the country who do not speak much English or any Melayu.

They are unlike their countrymen who are in Malaysia even illegally to work in the pasar malam and who are able to speak good or passable Melayu enough to be able to argue over prices with some of them Melayu.  

But Malaysian Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman did not want to have any of that, so Konfrantasi or Confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia happened.

If Melayu Raya or the concept of Melayu United was given the opportunity to happen, then Singapore would not be able to exist, despite the brilliance of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew who Mahathir Mohammad was happy to comment how he, Kuan Yew had wanted to become the leader of a larger country if Singapore continued to remain in the Federation of Malaysia.

Singapore was in the federation for two years before Tunku expelled it. Kuan Yew cried.

He probably thought if Singapore was still in the federation and if his Malaysian Malaysia concept was accepted by all or the majority of Malaysians, then surely, over time he could become the country’s prime minister and slowly but surely, Malaysia could also become a bigger Singapore with a Chinese majority.

Kuan Yew’s Malaysian Malaysia concept is silly; he should know that the majority of the Melayu would not accept it.

He also did not seem to realize that Malaysia formed after the rulers of the nine Melayu states had agreed to merge, so their views and desires too had to be considered.

If the Malaysian Malaysia concept had to be accepted than the nine Sultans had to give way.

There was no way for the Melayu to be able to accept this.

And even then, surely, the population of the Melayu would increase so that they would become the majority in the country with Singapore too having less Chinese.

With the PAP still active in Malaysia, Kuan Yew will definitely be the most senior Chinese political leader in the country and the offshoot party known as the Democratic Action Party (DAP) would not exist.

It was a grave mistake for Melayu Raya not to have been allowed to be formed. It would have caused the Melayu in the two countries and also Brunei to be more united with a more common language and identity.

Even the Melayu in South Thailand and the Philippines would be further empowered and chances are South Thailand would have become an independent state long ago.

Thailand would not dare to make Melayu Raya unhappy, and they have to allow the Melayu states in South Thailand independence, as much as the Philippines was also forced to allow the Melayu areas in South Philippines independence too.

Was Tunku feeling inferior to Sukarno that he did not agree to Malaysia and Indonesia merging?

Tunku only wanted Sabah and Sarawak, and Singapore and also Brunei to merge to form Malaysia so he could continue to become its prime minister.

With Sukarno in Melayu Raya, chances are he and not Tunku would be elected the country’s leader since Sukarno was already the leader of a much larger country.

Kuan Yew could only dream of becoming the chief minister of the state of Singapore with it having a governor much like the governors that we have in Melaka, Pulau Pinang and Sabah and Sarawak in the Federation of Malaysia today.

And Pulau Pinang too would not have a Chinese majority. The Melayu from Sumatera would come in droves to overwhelm them.

The Chinese in Malaysia will be and behave much like the Chinese in Indonesia who were forced to go to the cities to live after they were forced out of the rural areas by force in the 1960s where they live quietly without any political ambitions and being forced to submit to the dictates of the majority.

Or maybe the concept of Melayu Raya can still be realized albeit in a different form with Malaysia and Indonesia merging in many ways that allow their citizens to further coalesce into one entity with a common goal much like Singapore which is slowly but surely doing that with Motherland China.