Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s recent remarks about the Chinese being marginalized in Malaysia have expectedly raised a storm across the causeway. Some journalists actually ponder if what he said was true. My question is, which Singaporean does not know that his Chinese friends in Malaysia are treated like second class citizens in their own country?
We work alongside highly qualified Malaysian Chinese professionals here everyday. Our children study alongside brilliant students who are unable to gain admission into their own universities. We listen to our relatives tell sob stories of how they have to do all the work whilst the Malay counterparts get promoted. We hear them condemn their own Chinese leaders in the MCA as a bunch of self-serving stooges. The list goes on and on.
The real question Singaporeans should be asking is, why did LKY make this type of unhelpful remarks at this time? Just when the anti-Singapore (in the words of veteran Malaysian journalist Seah Chiang Nee) Dr Mahathir has dropped out of the scene and relations with Malaysia are mending nicely under Abdullah Badawi, why did he go and stir up the hornet’s nest? It’s none of our business. Certainly he knows that Asean members have always maintained a policy of non-interference.
Maybe he is worried that the recent squabble between the Mahathir and Badawi is getting out of hand and wanted to help by giving them a convenient distraction … Heck, what am I talking about?
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