Singapore - The accidental country

 I found this video covering the events of Singapore's independence, from a foreign history (or geography) "student".

He speaks a little fast, but he gets his points across. And not being Singaporean, his understanding (or interest) in the specifics was not too "cheem". And he was more concerned with borders, than with history.

But there was this comment:

As a Singaporean, I am always tickled (chuffed?) when non-Singaporeans are interested in my home. I, too, think of Singapore as an "accidental country". Some countries have to fight for independence. We had independence thrust unwanted upon us. I know you don't have time to get into the details, so this is not intended as a criticism, but think of this as a Singaporean providing colour commentary. in 1958 (?) approximately, Singapore was allowed self-government by the British, with a view to independence eventually. However, the conventional wisdom then was that SG was too small to be independent. We needed to import water from Johore. Even now. (Which is another interesting story, but another time.) So the plan was for SG to join the Federation of Malayan states. At that time, it was just the 9 states in Peninsula Malaysia. However, the concern was that the large population of Chinese in SG would make the indigenous Malays a minority. To offset the large Chinese population, our merger with the Federation would only be viable if other heavily Malay states were included. The other candidates were Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei. Eventually, Brunei declined to join the Federation, leaving just Sabah, Sarawak (in North Borneo, now known as East Malaysia) and Singapore to merge with the Federation and achieve independence as states in the Federation. Our two years in the Federation were not smooth sailing. I shall refrain from blaming Malaysia, but there were racial tension, riots, and... let's call them "differences of opinions". Malaysia (Federation of) promoted a public policy of a "Malay Malaysia", with the indigenous people - the Malays - having a special status in the country. Singapore, under Lee Kuan Yew, championed a "Malaysian Malaysia". The Malaysian PM saw this as agitation and a challenge to the political doctrine of Malay Pre-eminence (Ketuanan Melayu - also translated as "Malay Supremacy"), and Malay hardliners (a.k.a. Malay Ultras) wanted to stop Lee Kuan Yew, and punish Singapore. Meanwhile, the Singapore leaders started to plan to exit the Federation. My understanding was that Lee Kuan Yew absolutely believed in the conventional wisdom then, that Singapore was not viable on her own. We were (and still are) a small country with no natural resources, and need to import water just to survive. How could we be independent? But his colleagues thought otherwise. Some always felt that merger with Malaysia was untenable. In any case a plan for Singapore to separate from the Federation was made. The Malay Ultras in the Federation govt probably thought that the best way to deal with an upstart arrogant Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore, was to kick us out of the Federation, let us realise how tough it was to survive on our own, and in a few years time come crawling back to the Federation, poor and starving and begging to be readmitted on the Federation terms. Good plan. If it had worked. Unfortunately (for the Federation), no one told us the plan, so we rolled up our sleeves, put our faith in our govt, and made this accidental country succeed. In spades. And that explains the faith we have in the PAP. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, after mucking around with race-based politics and Ketuanan Melayu for about 60 years, the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition govt led by the United Malay National Organisation, was defeated in the General Election of May 2018, and the new coalition govt (or at least a faction within that coalition) is promoting "Ketuanan Rakyat" - Citizen's Supremacy (or "Pre-eminence). Which is suspiciously like the PAP's "Malaysian Malaysia". Oh well. Better late than never.

Your takeaway from the video is, Singapore is an accidental country. I believe LKY also said this once.

As for the comment, I would like to see more of the contributions of the other founding fathers - Goh Keng Swee, Rajaratnam, Toh Chin Chye, and maybe Lim Kim San. But it was a Youtube comment, not a dissertation. 

There are more details in the "Albatross files".