Najib A Rational Leader, Says Lee Kuan Yew
... and Mahathir is a moron ?
Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew has described Datuk Seri Najib Razak as a rational leader who understands that Malaysia benefits from co-operating with its southern neighbour but is hampered by sentiments from the Malay grassroots.
“Prime Minister Najib Razak is a rational leader. He wants to co-operate with us because he sees the benefits for Malaysia. But he has to deal with the emotions of his domestic ground, just like politicians everywhere,” the island republic’s elder statesman said in his latest book, “Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going”.
The 458-page tome was published by Straits Times Press earlier this year and features a series of interviews with Singapore’s minister mentor between December 2008 and October 2009.
Lee appeared to suggest that Malaysia’s politics, which places the Malay race above others, will continue to remain a stumbling block in warm bilateral relations with Singapore.
He stressed that Singapore, unlike Malaysia, is a multiracial meritocracy and has found a balance between the races and between its social and economic classes.
“All my relatives in Kuala Lumpur have migrated to Australia; they have given up. But we are here in Singapore and we intend to be permanently here,” Lee said.
In recent years, race and religious tensions in multiracial Malaysia have grown more heated, which has affected the country’s relations with Singapore, a former state in the federation until it was expelled in 1965.
In Malaysia, certain Malay groups have come out strongly against the ethnic Chinese in the belief the latter group controls the largest slice of the economic pie.
Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia has been accused of stoking racial tensions through news reports and opinion pieces warning national leaders of the country becoming “another Singapore”, where the Chinese-dominated nation is seen to marginalise the minority Malays.
The 87-year-old Lee, who was Singapore prime minister from June 5, 1959 to November 28, 1990, questioned if Najib will be able to organise a country-wide change when faced with such a challenge.
“So will the Malay ground allow co-operation with Singapore? To what extent will they support projects which while they benefit Malaysia, will also help Singapore to prosper?
“Every Malaysian leader must remember these questions. We should not forget this,” the influential Singaporean statesman said.
According to Lee, Singapore has been able to move forward ahead of its peers in the region despite being a tiny nation because it focused on building interracial and interreligious harmony early on, which he noted is crucial to create internal stability to attract investors.
“If you have racial or religious conflicts, we will degenerate to a Beirut,” he said.
“I have no doubt in my mind that [if] we did not give the Malays and less-educated Indians a sense that they are sharing in this society — that they also have their own flats, they also have a job, they also have a place in similar schools for their children — we’re going to have a Beirut situation. Bombs will go off,” he added. - Malaysian Insider
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