Malaysia-Singapore sibling rivalry lingers

Malaysia-Singapore sibling rivalry lingers

By Bill Tarrant

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysia's angry response to a disparaging remark by Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew highlights a sibling rivalry between the two countries that were once united, analysts said on Thursday.

Lee, Singapore's independence leader and first prime minister, touched a nerve when he described Malaysia's Johor state as "notorious for shootings, muggings and car-jackings".

Now senior minister in Singapore's cabinet, Lee made the remark in an affidavit filed in a Singapore court on Jan. 27 in one of 13 lawsuits brought against Singapore opposition politician Tang Liang Hong after elections in January.

Malaysia on Wednesday officially asked Lee to apologize and retract the statement.

Singapore had yet to officially react by Thursday but analysts said some sort of amends would likely be made to Malaysia, which reacted lividly to the remark.

Members of the youth wing of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's United Malays National Organization, at a demonstration in Johor state, insulted Lee in terms unheard of in the normally circumspect ties among Southeast Asian nations.

The demonstrators waved placards calling him "stupid" "senile" and "a bloody idiot".

"Some Singaporeans feel themselves to be generally superior to Malaysians, and even if they don't, most Malaysians think they do and that is enough," said Bruce Gale, of Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in Singapore.

Singapore left the Malaysian Federation in 1965 partly in opposition to Malaysia's program of preferential treatment for indigenous Malays to help them compete in an economy dominated by ethnic Chinese.

Singapore's population is mostly Chinese with Indian and Malay minorities. Malays are the dominant group in Malaysia but Chinese and Indians make up nearly 40 percent of the population.

Singapore has for years thrived as a financial, oil-refining, and shipping center for neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia.

Most of Singapore's water and much of its food comes from Malaysia. Singaporeans are major investors in Johor, which is one reason why Malaysians found Lee's remarks so galling.

"It's a symbiotic relationship," a Singapore academic said. But Malaysia is fast catching up economically, with growth averaging more than eight percent a year over the past decade. Malaysia also now rivals Singapore as a refining center, building new ports to take business from Singapore.

A new offshore financial center on Malaysia's Labuan island is aimed at pulling banking business away from Singapore and a new zone for information technology companies is competing with Singapore for a share of the growing global multimedia market.

Markets in Singapore were jittery on Thursday about how Malaysia would respond to Lee's comments, with investors citing Mahathir's angry reactions in the past to perceived insults from Australia and Britain.

In 1994, Mahathir ordered a ban on government contracts for British businesses after British media reports suggested Anglo- Malaysian trade was tainted by corruption.

He nearly launched a trade war in 1993 with Australia after former Prime Minister Paul Keating described him as "recalcitrant". Keating defused the issue with an apology. "The current dispute is more style than substance," said Bunn Negara, coordinating chairman of Geopolicy Research. "It doesn't have anything to do with the government's position. It's more the personal style and idiosyncrasies of Lee Kuan Yew."

Last year the two countries traded barbs after Lee said the prospect of eventual reunification was unlikely as long as Malaysia favored its Malay citizens. Mahathir accused Singapore of using his country as a "bogeyman" to scare voters ahead of Singapore's elections.

Bunn said that exchange led to a useful debate because Lee posed the fundamental question of whether Singapore could survive as a state if it were unable to compete with Malaysia.

"The differences between the two Koreas are greater than the differences between Singapore and Malaysia," he said. "It's not unlikely the two might come together again."