Its 1965 All Over Again

Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's ex-Prime Minister aka ex-Senior Minister and current Mentor Minister (Who know's what is next?) says that Singapore and Malaysia might merge.
Interested to know? Read these two article from The New Strait Times.

KUALA LUMPUR: Singapore would be happy to rejoin Malaysia if it surpassed the island’s success, its former prime minister and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said.

“They have all the resources. If they would just educate the Chinese and the Indians, use them and treat them as citizens, they can equal us and even do better than us, and we would be happy to rejoin them,” he said in an interview with the Asia Institute of the University of California, Los Angeles, published earlier this week.

Bernama reported that the Singapore founding father had made similar remarks in June 1996, raising a storm on both sides of the Causeway with the then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad saying he did not think the time had come for a merger yet.

Dr Mahathir also described the remarks as just a means “to jolt Singaporeans” to their senses.

Asked about Singapore’s “sense of endangerment” and why it worried about its survivability in the long run, Lee replied: “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?

“Singapore is a superstructure built on what? On 700 square kilometres and a lot of smart ideas that have worked so far — but the whole thing could come undone very quickly.

“When (Malaysia) kicked us out (in 1965), the expectation was that we would fail and we would 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 civilisations.

“We are a standing indictment of all the things that they could be doing differently.”

Analysts in Singapore, however, do not see any possibility of a Malaysia-Singapore merger.

“The chances of a re-merger in 1996 and in 2007 are the same — zero,” said Dr Ooi Kee Beng, co-ordinator of the Malaysia study programme at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and author of The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time.

“The very idea of a re-merger on Singapore’s terms is appalling to most Malays,” Ooi told the Today newspaper. — Bernama
Courtesy of NST 12/10/07

And guess what? There's a follow up to it too.

KUALA LUMPUR: Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew should not pass uncalled-for remarks about Malaysia and its people.

Referring to comments by the former prime minister published by the local media yesterday, Gerakan secretary-general Datuk Seri Chia Kwang Chye said the remarks were "unstatesman-like".

Lee had said that Singapore would be happy to rejoin Malaysia if it surpassed the island's success.

"They have the resources. If they would just educate the Chinese and the Indians, use them and treat them as citizens, they can equal us and even do better than us.

"We would be happy to rejoin them," Lee had said in an interview with the Asia Institute of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Chia said Malaysia and Singapore had their own success stories.

"Let's build on this and not dwell on history."

Meanwhile, DAP chairman Karpal Singh said that the destiny of Singapore and Malaysia was intertwined.

"Singapore must realise that it has Malaysia, a country endowed with natural resources, as its hinterland. A day will come when Singapore will burst at its seams."

"Pure logic demands that one day Singapore will have to return to the fold by rejoining Malaysia for its survival, whether it likes to or not," he said.
Courtesy of NST 13/10/07

For the record, there is no posting of this news on The Star. Its seems that it is very anti-controversial these days. And even The Sun cut downs on its juicy news.