Thread by @FreeMsian

I am just quoting LKY here without attesting to the factuality: "I realised what Albar and his UMNO Turks had applied in Singapore was a well-tested method. The Police and the Army held the ring while favouring the Malay rioters -....."

" usually (the malay rioters are) bersilat groups, thugs and even gangsters let loose to make mischief. Once passions were aroused and enough Chinese counter-attacked, even ordinary Malays joined-in."

"When the Chinese hit back, they were clobbered by the police and army, law and order were enforced against them, not against the Malays. The result was a sullen, cowed population," Lee Kuan Yew.

"We (Singaporeans) had jumped out of the frying pan of the communists into the fire of Malay communalists," LKY in his own words.

"We decided one effective defence (for the Chinese) would be to link the opposition in all the towns of Federation in one network, so that a riot in one major city triggered off riots in others to a point where the police and army would be unable to cope."

"Our moves to unite did not escape attention. On 24 Apr 1965, @TheTunku disclosed in a speech that there were plans for an opposition get-together. He knew non-Malays were combining forces to make a stand for multiracial Malaysia as against Malay-Malaysia."

@TheTunku warned: "But the people should, however make a study of this man (LKY) before they give their heart and soul to any such move. The Alliance (now BN) and LKY have worked together for Malaysia, but we found it difficult to carry on after Malaysia."

LKY reflects: "The Tunku had good reason to be concerned. The opposition MPs in parliament had been getting increasingly restive as they listened to the racist speeches made by Albar and young UMNO Malay leaders."

The concerned opposition made up of PAP, UDP(Penang), PPP(Perak), SUPP (Sarawak) signed a declaration with them calling for Malaysian Malaysia for the first time.

The declaration: "A Malaysian Malaysia means that the state is not identified with the supremacy, well-being and interests of any one particular community or race."

"A Malaysian Malaysia is the antithesis of a Malay Malaysia, a Chinese Malaysia, a Dayak Malaysia, an Indian Malaysia or Kadazan Malaysia and so on."

"The growing tendency among some leaders to make open appeals to communal chauvinism to win and hold their following has gradually led them also to what has been tantamount to a repudiation of the concept of Malaysian Malaysia."

The declaration ended with "A Malaysian Malaysia is worth fighting because only in such a Malaysia is there a decent and dignified future for all Malaysians. It is in this spirit and expectation that we appeal to all Msians to support this convention."

LKY continues: "UMNO decided that I had been the moving spirit behind the convention and attacked me vigorously. Albar and Utusan Melayu were getting bolder and wilder in their accusations."

Angered by an article in the London Observer, Albar sent an open letter to them, which said: "Malays are having rough time in Singapore and are now being oppressed by the PAP. LKY is continually challenging their national sentiments with provocative statements."

"Yet in spite of all these, it was not the Malays who started the 1964 riots. The riots were started by agent provocateurs, who may even be in the pay of LKY." LKY sued Albar and Utusan (as publisher) for libel but both refused to apologise.

LKY further cited in his libel action the story published by Utusan on 25 Mar 1965: "LKY is accused of being enemy of Malaysia and an agent of Indonesia. WALK OVER MY DEAD BODY FIRST - AlBAR... Tuan Syed Ja'afar Albar, General Secretary, UMNO Malaya."

LKY further cited an article on 27 Mar 1965: "Albar accuses LKY of being an agent of the communists." (btw, the fact that LKY joined Malaysia to escape home grown communists didn't matter to Albar).

LKY further cited Utusan's article: "LKY has evil intention to destroy Malaysia and pit the Malays and the Chinese against each other. In 1966 after the separation, Albar and Utusan apologised and pay for all the costs. This trend our generation is familiar.

LKY continues: "Not only was I meeting Albar's poison with reason, but my message was also getting through to secondary UMNO leaders at Menteri Besar level. To Albar's shock, the MB of Perlis welcomed a statement I had made,

repeating my argument that special privileges for the Malays would only help a small group of bourgeoisie, whereas what was needed was to enable the mass of Malay have-nots in the rural areas to increase their earning capacity." We now live LKY's words.

"Then (Tun) Razak attacked me for a "statement" I had never made and had already denied making -- that the Malays were not the indigenous people of Malaysia."

"Saying that this was mischievous n dangerous n had created a serious situation, he issued an ultimatum that the Alliance Government would not work with me and "if the people of Singapore wish to maintain their relationship with us, they must find another leader who is sincere."

"Two days later, a group of UMNO youth in KL burnt me in effigy, and on 16 May, another group picketed the Language Institute where the general meeting of UMNO was due to be held. They carried banners that read "Suspend Singapore Constitution. Detain LKY, Crush LKY."

"And when the Tunku arrived, they shouted "Detain LKY." At the meeting, several UMNO delegates demanded my detention. (Tun Dr) Ismail said, "This is not the way to do things in Malaysia. We must act constitutionally."

MCA poured oil into the fire, Albar continued his firebrand speeches in Malay and Utusan inflamed it even further.

The climax was left to the only one of the two remaining Malay Ultras, Dr Mahathir. The LKY response that came and broke the camel's back is next.

The next day LKY made his final speech in Malaysian Parliament that shocked UMNO. They decided they had enough of LKY and decided to cut him and his city state off Malaysia.

His speech: "We have a vested interest in constitutionalism and in loyalty because we know and we knew before we joined Malaysia that if we are patient enough, if we are firm, the constitution must mean a Malaysian nation emerges."

"But Dr M speech implied that this could never happen. I quote what he said a day before about the Chinese in Singapore. "They have never known Malay rule and couldn't bear that the people they have kept under their heels should now be in a position to rule them." To rule them?"

"I drew a distinction between political equality and the special rights for the economic and social uplift of the Malays. I accepted the special rights but if other people of Malaysia are denied political equality with the Malays, we would not need Sukarno to crush us."

"Once you throw this (waving the Constitution in his right hand) into the fire and say 'be done with it," that means you do it for a long time; history is a long, relentless process."

"Albar want us to secede and leave our friends in Sarawak, Sabah, Penang, Malacca and other parts of Malaysia to UMNO's tender mercies; we would not oblige." [But LKY eventually did this.]

"I am Malaysian, I am learning Bahasa Kebangsaan, and I accept article 153 of the Constitution (on the special rights of the Malays."

LKY recalls: "I said while I accepted Malay as the sole official language, I did not see how it could raise the economic position of the people. Would it mean that the produce of the Malay farmer would increase in price, that he would get better prices?"

"Would he (the farmer) get improved facilities from the Government? If the Alliance do not have the real answers to current economic problems, it should not stifle the opposition."

"In 10 years, we will breed a generation of Malays, educated and with the understanding of the techniques of science and modern industrial management."

LKY prepares to answer this vitriol by Dr M "It is necessary to emphasise that there are 2 types of Chinese, the MCA supporters to be found mainly where Chinese have for generations lived and worked amidst the Malays and other insular, selfish and arrogant type like LKY"

"What does this mean Mr Speaker? They were not words uttered in haste, they were scripted, prepared and dutifully read out, and if we are to draw implications from that, the answer is quite simple; the Malaysia will not be a Malaysian nation. I say, say so, let us know it now."

"As for Dr M's allegation that the Malays only exist at syce level, Special rights and Malay as the national language were not the answer to the economic problems."

"If out of 4.5 million Malays and another three quarter of a million bumi non-Malays, we made 0.3% them company shareholders, would we solve the problem of Malay poverty?" LKY hit the nail in its head in 1965!

"If we are going to delude people into believing that they are poor because there are no Malay rights or because of opposition members oppose Malay rights, where are we going to end up?"

"You let people in the Kampungs believe that they are poor because we don't speak Malay, because the Government does not write in Malay, so he (Dr Mahathir) expects a miracle to take place in 1967 (the year Malay would become the national and sole language)," LKY.

LKY recalls about his speech in 1965: "The Malays present (in parliament including speactators) did not expect me, the supposed anti-Malay Chinese chauvinist out to destroy the Malay race, to speak in Malay with no trace of a Chinese dialect accent that most Chinese have."

"@TheTunku and Tun Razak looked most unhappy. I was meeting them on their own Malay ground and competing for support peacefully with arguments in an open debate."

"I was not rattled by their strident, shrill, and even hysterical cries of abuse and denigration. If allowed to go on, I might begin to win over some Malays."

"They could see that among the MPs wearing the Haji skullcaps, head were nodding in agreement when I pointed out that simply having Malay as the national language would not improve their economic lot. They needed practical programmes directed in fields of agriculture n education"

LKY continues his recollection: "The speech aroused such unease among the Alliance leaders and MPs that, contrary to standing orders, the Speaker ruled I could not reply to arguments made against it."

"Instead, he called on (Tun) Razak, in the place of @TheTunku, to wind up the debate. (Tun) Razak launched into a long spiel of accusations: I was out to create chaos and trouble and hoped to emerge as the leader who could save the country."

"I was an expert in creating situations that didn't exist. I planned to split the country into two, - one Malay Malaysia and one Lee Kuan Yew's Malaysia."

"(Tun) Razak was most bitter when he concluded, "The gulf that divides PAP and the Alliance is now clear. PAP means Partition and Perish." I had not expected my speech to play a crucial role in the Tunku's decision to get Singapore out of Malaysia," Lee Kuan Yew.

"Twelve years later, 1977, in his book Looking Back, the Tunku wrote, "The straw that broke the camel's back, however, was a speech Mr Lee Kuan Yew made in Parliament, when he moved the amendment to the motion to thank the King for his speech in 1965," Lee Kuan Yew writes.

This was his speech transcript and you be the judge. Post your comments in the reply. nas.gov.sg/archivesonline…