In a recent interview, Lee Kuan Yew said Singapore is exposed to a danger of disrespect of international law. He was clearly referring to either Malaysia or Indonesia. My bet is he was speaking specifically about Malaysia. He thinks Malaysia will, given half a chance, lay siege. He thinks the reason for that is that Singapore is a painful reminder to Malaysia that Malaysia has been badly mismanaged by perpetuating racist policies. Singapore stares down at Malaysia and says “see what you could have been? You choose instead to take the racist and destructive path”. No one likes to be reminded that he has been wrong, that he has made a mistake. Malaysia has been a mistake for a long time now. You can’t right a wrong unless you first accept that there has been a wrong. Instead of acknowledging that the racist path has been wrong and has been bad for the country including the Malays, it continues with to not only travel down this path but lies and tell the country that it is the best path.Give the Chinese and Indians more equal opportunities and the whole country would be better off. But no, Malaysian leaders in their collective wisdom, decide instead to behave in the most bloody minded and idiotic way. The following is an extract of the interview: Lee:  Where are we? Are we in the Caribbean? Are we next to America like the Bahamas? Are we in the Mediterranean, like Malta, next to Italy? Are we like Hong Kong, next to China and therefore, will become part of China?  
We are in Southeast Asia, in the midst of a turbulent, volatile, unsettled region. Singapore is a superstructure built on what? On 700 square kilometers and  a lot of smart ideas that
have worked so far but the whole thing could come undone very quickly.

For this to work, you require a world where there are some rules of international law and there is a balance of forces of power that will  enforce that international law and the U.S. is foremost in that. Without that balance of power and international law, the Vietnamese will still be in Cambodia and the Indonesians will still be in East Timor, right? Why are they out? Because there were certain norms that had to be observed. You can’t just cross boundaries. This little island with four and a half million people, of whom 1.3 are foreigners working here, has got to maintain an army, navy and an air force. Can we withstand a concerted attempt to besiege us and blockade us? We can repel an attack, yes. Given the armed forces in the region and our capability, we can repel and we can damage them. Three weeks, food runs out, we are besieged, blockaded.

QUESTION Who will come after you? Who would come after you?
Lee:  There are assets here to be captured, right?
QUESTION Some unnamed bad regime?
Lee:  When [Malaysia] kicked us out [in 1965], the expectation was that we would fail and we will go back on their terms, not on the terms we agreed with them under the British. Our problems are not just between states, this is a problem between races and religions and civilizations. We are a standing indictment of all the things that they can be doing differently. They have got all the resources.  If they would just educate the Chinese and Indians, use them and treat them as their citizens, they can equal us and even do better than us and we would be happy to rejoin them.

I recently read a book on the racial clashes in Malaysia in 1969. Written by Dr Kua Kia Soong, it was simply titled “May 13”. May 13, amongst Malaysian Chinese, conjures up ugly images. It is however, an ugliness perpetuated by the Malays, particularly the Malays in the dominant ruling party of UMNO. May 13 is consistent with what others wrote about the issue of racial bullying in Malaysia. Lee Kuan Yew for example, wrote about the different treatments received by Malay and Chinese at different times when the races clashed. Kua Kia Soong gave similar accounts.The Malay police would shoot at Chinese homes indiscriminately and would be very harsh with Chinese presence on the streets during curfew hours, even shoot at them. On the other hand, they would sit around and share a joke with Malay rioters, who often still have their weapons in hand.The biggest culprit was UMNO. It was clearly they who started and was fully responsible for the tragedy. Tun Abdul Razak had blood on his hands. There have been suggestions that the riots were okayed by him personally. While his motivation may not have been racially based at the first instance, he ignited deep seated racist sentiments which have always simmered away and never fully abated in most part of the country. His son Najib Razak the current Deputy Prime Minister, continues to threaten to have more Chinese blood on his hands. If he is not careful, or indeed if he continues to remain deliberately callous towards sensitivities of other races, he may well ignite yet another chapter of similar tragedy. I don’t know the extent of damage May 13 inflicted on the lives and psyche of Malaysians, particularly those of the Chinese. Until recently, those who remembered May 13 still fear voting for the opposition. UMNO has taken advantage of this and has repeatedly used this fear tactic in every election since. I wonder if one of the effects of May 13 is a tendency to stick to one’s own race. When we were in Klang recently, I asked if any one in Tress’ family has deliberately or naturally walked into an Indian restaurant to have a meal. Apart from the roti canai, I challenged them to name even a handful of dishes one can order in an Indian restaurant. For as long as I could remember, Chinese in Malaysia have always referred to food and ways of lives of other races as “their food” or “their ways” in demeaning and belittling ways, in ways which leave the listeners in no doubt that they thought the Indians’ ways and foods to be inferior.The racist tendency abounds. Many feel the same way. The nasty joke that if you see an Indian and a snake on the road which you’d run over, is often repeated, even amongst “respectable” circles. Racism rules in Malaysia.