Malaysia - Singapore Relationships

[chenchow]

Recently with our new Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, he has met with his Singapore counterpart, Goh Chok Tong twice since he became our Prime Minister. 2 more visits are in store by end of this month, one is the visit of Singapore cabinet to JB on 3rd day of CNY for Malaysia CNY Open House and the next day, Malaysia cabinet will visit Singapore on a social visit.

Both the PMs have decided to go back to all those thorny issues and try to solve using negotiation.

Do you think this will work this time? Any other opinion you have on this issue?

Many of Recomers have studied in Singapore before and a long tradition of Malaysia Night for Junior College students are now gone forever. Fewer and fewer Malaysians are being sent over for top 5 colleges etc.

So, just pour in your thought. I started this thread after talking with Jiin Joo on this issue and I think many would have a lot of opinion to talk about on this.

[Thirdshifter]

quoted for a singapore daily,

One issue that seems to disturb Malaysians is the fact that the price at which Singapore sells water to its residents and ships in its port is much higher than that of the raw water it gets from Johor.

They should perhaps read a Nanyang Siang Pau commentary, which said: 'It is none of our business at what price Singapore wants to sell water to its people or to foreign ships.

'In the same way, when our durians are sold to Singapore, we don't bother how its wholesalers and hawkers sell them or whether it makes exorbitant profits.

'We only need to calculate our profits. The same applies to the sale of water.'

[chiunlin]

I'm sure that most ATU seniors have the experience of doing a radio drama in the first sem, and my group has actually chosen to write about the relatioship between Malaysia and Singapore. Below here are excerpts of some of its part:

GTC: We have been adhering strictly to the agreement all these while. Now, when asked to revise the price, we have been generous to accept the rise of 20 times of the original price of 3 cents per 1000 gallon. However, our fickle neighbors to the north demanded a 100-fold increment. Give them an inch and they want a yard!
Matahari: For over 40 years, we?ve been very considerate to your puny population and your demands for water. Yet, you are using this to rake in profits by charging exorbitant prices on your own citizens. So now, we actually are trying to make your citizens realize that they have been exploited all these while.
.
.
.
GTC: He?s lying! He?s the one who has been cheating on you! They?ve been poisoning you all with pesticide-laden vegetables and hormone-filled chickens!
Matahari: How about your exporting SARS, Severe Acute Refractory Syndrome, which has caused my citizens to go on the streets to remonstrate on every single policy that I made?
GTC: This is because of your KIASU citizens! Your greedy citizens come to my country to siphon off our monetary and natural resources, cause increments in unemployment and crime rates and cramp our already congested roads and causing traffic jams. THEY are to be blamed for bringing SARS to your country.
Matahari: How dare you mention KIASU? What about your recent activities in narrowing the straits to eliminate competition of our seaports? IT is so narrow that even my grandma can swim across it. You greedy numeral insensitive fellows even tried to claim our White Rock Island. I seriously recommend that you should re-train your officers in math?s, history and geography!
GTC: How about your sanctimonious officers, issuing summonses to couples for displaying affections to each other in public?
Matahari: Your citizens are no better, flouting every single traffic rule and refuse to pay for summonses which have accumulated to millions, causing a great loss to our treasury.
GTC: Hmm. Give me one minute to counter your fallacious reasoning, you sophist.
Matahari: What did you call me you modern day democratic autocrat?
GTC: What about you the recalcitrant bonehead who stayed in power for over 2 decades?
Matahari: Parasitic leech!
GTC: Big bully!
Matahari: Obsessive bigot!
GTC: Incurable megalomaniac!
Matahari: Obsequious sycophant!
GTC: Senile fickler!
Matahari: You defected former Malai Baru citizen!

This drama is of course, a parody of the situation and strictly for amusement and if any recom anchors is no very comfortbale with the last part, kindly delete it. But anyway, most the core issues under dispute are there. Other issues include the Johor Sultanate land and the building of the ridiculous curve bridge.

I think that this time, certain compromise will be reached and relationship will certainly improved and I see no benefit for both of the countries to continue its 'cold war'.

[__earth]

could u post the whole thing? looks like fun!!! :)

about msia-sing, it's certainly heading for a better side. or at least that's what the media tells us. pak lah less aggressive style does help a lot.

and concerning the water issue, i hope it ends with msia still supplying it. it could be used as some political pressure if msia ever needs it in the future. =)

[chenchow]

I think Pak Lah is using more diplomacy style, hopefully we won't kena buli.

chiunlin, you could actually submit the whole script to Creative Corner. I am sure many are interested to read. May be your other classmates could post theirs here too!!!

[jiinjoo]

Haha LOL - the script is hilarious - maybe you can submit the entire thing to the creative corner.

But always be aware when you're discussing such issues, that it looks like your 9-layer kuih (the red pink red pink one...), realize that what has mostly been quoted is the political bickering, mainly for the mainstream media, raising nationalistic spirit and all.

Here's something not many of you see - I'll tell it in a story:




Of the many trips I make from home back to the island, I took KTM train, the night one, such that I don't waste much time and I can sleep throughout the journey. I can either stop right in S'pore, of which I'll have to "enter" Singapore at Woodlands station (facing JB), and "exit" Malaysia at Tanjung Pagar station (closer to the south business district).

Before the Woodland station was built, there was only the JB station. From there I can take a bus down to the island, or I can choose to go all the way to Tanjung Pagar and take a bus back to my school, which is longer.

So there was once, I was woken up, in the same way on the train, by the national anthem of S'pore (5:30am), right before the JB station. I chose to exit at the JB station this time just to explore the possibilities to get accross the causeway by walking instead of taking bus. So I stepped out of the train, into the station, and came to the main road.

This road, Jalan Tun Abdul Razak, carries traffic flowing Towards Singapore while the parallel rod Jalan Wong Ah Fook flows the other way. I was right outside the train station, looking at the quiet town starting to get busy, at a moderate pace. Many cars were already lining up at the petrol station to pump up their tank before entering S'pore. The gates were not open yet (immigration opens at 5:45am if I'm not wrong), but we do have a few cars lining up already, some drivers standing outside their cars smoking.

At 5:37am (time accuracy used for dramatic effect), towards the north end of Jalan Tun Abdul Razak, in which the road bends away from visible range, a loud thunder was heard. Not the kind that roared for a split second, but thousands of thunder roaring together, and getting louder and louder. In this case, sound travelled faster than light, afterwhich in just a few seconds, the entire road was lit up by lights!

Then they came. Thousands and thousands of motorcycles, as if they had agreed in advance, flushed the road like water right in front of me. No one spoke, no one breathed. There were patterns on the motorcycles, distinct green / blue uniforms, like a military platoon. Others were in shirts ties office attires. They rushed to the gates, and at the exact same time, the gates were opened. Every minute, hundreds of them got pass the m'sian exit point swiftly and disappeared into a sea of red lights.

They just wouldn't stop coming. I picked up my luggage, went pass immigration and started walking south. I wasn't alone. A large number of uniformed men and women were walking alongside with me. They spoke nothing. Most of them are probably still in their dreams. But they paced quickly, trying to out run one another, to reach the woodlands checkpoint. This is understandable, since the checkpoint is always the bottle neck (they have many lanes for S'poreans but insufficient lanes for foreigners) andthey wouldn't want to be late.

At the end of the causeway - what I came to was a dramatic display of cars, motocycles, and people in lines. One can easily imagine people flocking into KL to work, but this, becuase it is one hell of a big bottleneck, for once you can see all those who have travelled in and out of the country EVERY DAY, living their lives in factories right accross the straits. Even as I step on the bus after crossing the causeway, I was standing in a bus more crowded than the old mini-busses in KL/PJ, until when we came to a MRT station, when 90% of the people got off and disperse themselves in to the island, finding their own respective factories and offices.

It wasn't a Monday mind you (I remember clearly that it was in the middle of the week). Even so, that first sight of the motorcycles stayed in my memory forever, reminding me that this two countries have so much to lose should someone decided to close this border. Let's hope nobody will.

[chiunlin]

Yeap, I have posted my script in the creative corner under the topic 'Water Talks'. Hope you all will enjoy it.

[chenchow]

Jiin Joo, that was a good one :D

I would like to add about besides the human interactions, Malaysia and Singapore are intertwined on many other aspects. Especially there are many Malaysians who have their relatives being PR of Singapore or some have already gotten citizen of Malaysia... Why is it the flow always go south and not the other way? In terms of students flow, we can slowly see some balancing act, where more and more Singaporeans started to trust our private universities and actually come up north to study, but it will be a long time, before we actually attracted their gifted and most talented, may be it won't happen either (but frankly, I think that the quantity of very talented Singaporeans are very limited. Still remember the Math Olympiad etc in Singapore, their own Singapore Math Olympiad and the top 100 winners are like 5 to 10 Singaporeans only and those are typically not even in the top 50....)

Besides, many Malaysians and Singaporeans own/rent property on the other side of causeway, just for a place for them to stay. In terms of investment, trade, for both countries, the pie is too significant, just to ignore.

Guess, much is at stake, while both countries negotiate. With Singapore's Prime Ministership going to be handed back to Lee family in a year, it will be interesting to see how the relationship from both sides of causeway will turn out to be. Do you think the Lee Junior will be more serious in forging a better relationship with Malaysia? But anyway, S. Jayakumar would still be there and I don't have high hope on him... :(

[taufiq]

we could try having them back in the Liga-Super
Malaysia Soccer League
or whatever the name is now..

because i think sport is one good way
to get people from both countries
having the same thing to talk about
and we might be able to sit down together
and strengten relationship between both countries' citizen

[taufiq]

we could try having them back in the Liga-Super
Malaysia Soccer League
or whatever the name is now..

because i think sport is one good way
to get people from both countries
having the same thing to talk about
and we might be able to sit down together
and strengten relationship between both countries' citizen

[z]

[this is purely my opinion, unsupported by facts and figures.]

i think the number Malaysian students in JCs has dropped since JPA began offering more scholarships to non-bumiputeras (sorry if you find this "sensitive", but i'm just pointing out this well-known fact).

JPA's simply more attractive than ASEAN. based on my (limited) survey, i gather that most people don't even bother applying for ASEAN Pre-U (JC) anymore.

Malaysia Boleh!

[z]

[this is purely my opinion, unsupported by facts and figures.]

i think the number Malaysian students in JCs has dropped since JPA began offering more scholarships to non-bumiputeras (sorry if you find this "sensitive", but i'm just pointing out this well-known fact).

JPA's simply more attractive than ASEAN. based on my (limited) survey, i gather that most people don't even bother applying for ASEAN Pre-U (JC) anymore.

Malaysia Boleh!

[DecentMerson]

JPA's simply more attractive than ASEAN. based on my (limited) survey, i gather that most people don't even bother applying for ASEAN Pre-U (JC) anymore.


it is really really true that JPA is much more attractive that ASEAN....based on my own experience and observations....

but still quite a number of ppl are applying to ASEAN bcoz it is easier to get than JPA(if u dun have straight A1's...... and bcoz it is a great experience(but quite expensive one, bcoz u have to pay the sum of money u use if u rejected the contract after 3 months....the first 3 months are free...) i (my parents have to pay RM15k+ becoz i left for JPA at last August.....) so those ppl who are confident enuff that they are going to get JPA really dun bother to apply now.....

and JPA is much better bcoz ASEAN is a Pre-U course.....all u get in the end is A-level.....furthermore, if u want to further ur studies in Singapore...u will be bonded for a few years....(4 - 6 years for a scholarship)....that's why ASEAN PreU is without a bond...

and once u graduated and started to work, they will ask u to become a Permanent Resident.... and after that... most probably u will find a Singaporean partner and then.....u know what....that's how they keep their population......hehehe.....

i got my fren who score 4A's in A-level(ASEAN), then bcoz his General Paper got a B3.... he wasn't entitle for a good scholarship, he have to go to Australia to get his degree under (FAMA-father mother scholarship)....

[DecentMerson]

JPA's simply more attractive than ASEAN. based on my (limited) survey, i gather that most people don't even bother applying for ASEAN Pre-U (JC) anymore.


it is really really true that JPA is much more attractive that ASEAN....based on my own experience and observations....

but still quite a number of ppl are applying to ASEAN bcoz it is easier to get than JPA(if u dun have straight A1's...... and bcoz it is a great experience(but quite expensive one, bcoz u have to pay the sum of money u use if u rejected the contract after 3 months....the first 3 months are free...) i (my parents have to pay RM15k+ becoz i left for JPA at last August.....) so those ppl who are confident enuff that they are going to get JPA really dun bother to apply now.....

and JPA is much better bcoz ASEAN is a Pre-U course.....all u get in the end is A-level.....furthermore, if u want to further ur studies in Singapore...u will be bonded for a few years....(4 - 6 years for a scholarship)....that's why ASEAN PreU is without a bond...

and once u graduated and started to work, they will ask u to become a Permanent Resident.... and after that... most probably u will find a Singaporean partner and then.....u know what....that's how they keep their population......hehehe.....

i got my fren who score 4A's in A-level(ASEAN), then bcoz his General Paper got a B3.... he wasn't entitle for a good scholarship, he have to go to Australia to get his degree under (FAMA-father mother scholarship)....

[chenchow]

DecentMerson, you only need to pay back RM15K, when I left in August also, my parents need to pay back RM22K... That's 50% more...!

Yeah, I agree that most people, even those top scorers fail to get scholarship. Of a batch of say 20 people, usually only like 1 or 2 people will successfully get scholarship to study overseas...

On JPA, I think they have been pretty consistent for past 3 years. You have straight A1s, you are guaranteed. If not, depends... And as years go by and grade inflation happens, it is tougher and tougher to get the scholarship with some A2(s).

[chenchow]

DecentMerson, you only need to pay back RM15K, when I left in August also, my parents need to pay back RM22K... That's 50% more...!

Yeah, I agree that most people, even those top scorers fail to get scholarship. Of a batch of say 20 people, usually only like 1 or 2 people will successfully get scholarship to study overseas...

On JPA, I think they have been pretty consistent for past 3 years. You have straight A1s, you are guaranteed. If not, depends... And as years go by and grade inflation happens, it is tougher and tougher to get the scholarship with some A2(s).

[iQing]

^bump