HWA CHONG INSTITUTION (High School Section)

INTEGRATED HUMANITIES CORE

SECONDARY THREE
TOPIC : MERGER AND SEPARATION
WORKSHEET : ESSAY WRITING SKILLS (SEPARATION)

Name : Tay Yu Jia(28), Sit Han Zhe(23), Ong Kim Yao(20)/3P3

Date : 24/1/2011

Reasons for separation

1Federal Government
wanted Singapore to
Economic Reasons 1Goods to be increase its
contribution
bought and sold
Was freely without taxes however 2Pioneer certificates
Common Market 2New industries not issued
this was not
supposed
issued pioneer to 3Taxed Singapore
certificates goods highly
3Singapore to give
39% of revenue

fulfilled because
compounded by

1bank promoted trade

Separation between SG and china. Attempts to close down
the bank of China
2Cripple SGs economy
if contributions
increased.
made S’pore
far-reaching
3Affect SG
industrialization
programme unhappy
because
consequences
 1 SG was
1He wanted Kuala
Political entitled to 15
Lumpur to have a
instead 24 seats.
say in governing SG
Stipulated 2 SG people did in 1963 because
The not get to vote in Tunku 2Check on
constitutio suggested communist
Malaya elections
that PAP influence in SG
n
3Malays in SG work with
that did not get SA
special
privileges
elections but
LKY
refused so results
of MCA,
1PAP criticize elections
claiming that they did not 1SA did not win a
represent the urbanreflected
Chinese single seat
2. Alliance condemned
differences that that
PAP, became more united
worsened 1SA did not 2Even the SG branch
and UMNO came to of UMNO did not win
in the have support
MCA’s Defence
from SG Malays seats in the
predominantly Malay
constituencies
1964
elections
UMNO and because
Federal
1. Stirring anti government
The alliance saw this as a were
challenge to their PAP sentinel – unhappy because 1Separation
supremacy. Alliance portrayed anti
leaders were unhappy Malay education
with
so PAP
some and less
UMNO and housing
tolerant. leaders played policy
resulted
UMNO was afraid thatcommunal 2. Tried toin
make
Malay Support will sway politics the Malay
Community anti
PAP
by

Social

Because 1Malay poverty in

1Some UMNO
Communal leaders began to
Singapore
by focusing
2. Singapore’s
tension was play communal on
resettlement
present politics
program as anti-
2. UMNO was
Malays
afraid that
Singapore would
sway Malay
Support
because Singapore
1UMNO played up on
1Gave $300
Malay’s sentiment and 1Settle residents
and poverty for
Utusan Melayu played up on from Crawford,
new flats
anti-PAP sentiments Kampong Glam to
rocher
 did not

so the but
1964 riots

erupted

because when September

1964 riots occurred

1Police and security were ineffective to put down the rioters

Social/Political
and required security force from the federal government.
1Were from 1Creating a
the non- Malaysian
After the Prompting
1From the and the
communal with Malaysia
the
riots, the PAP
Malaysian to parties from ->Equality for all
solidarity Singapore, races
Singapore convention Sabah,
Alliance was Sarawak and members
reorganized aim of Malaya
were which was a
challenge to

UMNO as they wanted to maintain

Malay community
dominance/supremacy, for
example, in terms of citizenship
and Malay special rights.
IHC Essay

There were a few reasons to which why Singapore had to be separated

from the Federation of Malaysia. Minor arguments and conflicts had resulted in
an escalation to which both “merged” countries could no longer work with one
another together.

Singapore separated with Malaya partly because of economic reasons. A

common market was set up and it was supposed to allow goods to be bought
and sold without taxes, new industries to be issued pioneer certificates and
Singapore had to give 39% of its yearly revenue. However, this was not fulfilled
because of several reasons. Firstly, the Federal government wanted Singapore
to increase contribution. One example would be giving financial help to develop
Sabah and Sarawak. Not only that, the government wanted Singapore to
increase its contribution of yearly revenue to 60%. Issuing pioneer certificates
would mean competition to Kuala Lumpur industries and thus, Singapore
industries were not issued certificates as desired and affected Singapore’s
industrialization programme. The situation was worsened by the attempt to close
down the bank of China. It made Singapore unhappy because the Bank of China
helped to promote trade between Singapore and China. All these factors would
cripple Singapore’s economy and thus leading to separation.

There was also social tension between Singapore and Malaya. Because
of the 1964 Federal Elections, the Alliance leaders were unhappy with PAP. The
UMNO leaders played communal politics by focusing on Malay poverty in
Singapore and Singapore’s resettlement programme as anti-Malay because
Singapore did not explain its policies to the Malay organisations, thus leading
them into a huge misunderstanding. Even though Singapore tried to explain its
policies, the SUMNO organised an earlier meeting to incite anti-PAP sentiments,
causing the 1964 riots to erupt because the Malays had anti-PAP sentiments and
felt mistreated. When September 1964 riots occurred, the Police and security
forces were also ineffective to put down rioters. After the riots, the Singapore
Alliance was reorganised, prompting PAP to form Malaysian Solidarity
Convention (MSC). The members were from the non-communal parties from
Singapore, Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya. The aim of MSC was to create a
Malaysian Malaysia--equality for all races. Despite the creation of Malaysian
Malaysia, the racial tensions between Chinese and Malays could not be
resolved. Tunku thought that there would still be racial conflicts in future, thus, he
proposed separation.
 Political issues were also involved in causing the separation of the two
nations. Firstly, the Constitution stipulated that Singapore was entitled to 15
seats when they were supposed to get 24 seats in the Malaysian Federal
Parliament. Singaporeans also could not vote in Malaysian elections and Malays
in Singapore did not have special privileges. In the 1963 elections, Tunku wanted
PAP to work together with the Singapore Alliance, telling PAP to not compete
with the SA for the elections because he wanted to have a say in governing
Singapore and to check on communist influence in Singapore. But Mr Lee Kuan
Yew refused so results of elections were that the SA did not win any seats and
even the Singapore Branch of UMNO did not win any seats in the predominantly
Malay constituencies. This reflected that the SA did not have support from
Singaporean Malays. Differences worsened in the 1964 elections because PAP
took part in the Federal Elections in 1964 which Tunku disliked and PAP
criticised MCA as they didn’t represent the Chinese. UMNO and Federal
government were unhappy because PAP aimed for a non-communal politics so
some UMNO leaders played communal politics by focusing on Malay poverty in
Singapore and Singapore’s resettlement programme as being anti-Malay which
resulted in Malays being displeased and anti-PAP.

In conclusion, there were many factors which resulted in the separation of

Singapore and Malaysia as minor issues and conflicts--social, political and
economical-- started to pile up and explode at the final moments.