Opinion | The best and worst outcomes of the Singapore-Malaysia territorial disputes
- Mark J. Valencia says Malaysia’s territorial disputes with Singapore reflect the countries’ bitter past. But, in the long term, a trade-off is possible: one side gets to maintain its maritime claim, and the other gets to manage the airspace
This tit-for-tat revived a long-dormant dispute and became linked to other bilateral issues. Each accused the other of hyping the issues and stoking nationalism for domestic political gain. Some observers say the bilateral relationship is now the worst it has been in two decades.
There is an underlying context to these disputes: Singapore was expelled from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965 and, as a small Chinese-majority city state surrounded by Malay-majority neighbours, it has a phobia of being bullied by them.
The most biting summary of the bilateral relationship may have come from retired Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan, who said: “They have not given up – and never will – trying to tame or domesticate Singapore because unless they do so, the intrinsic shortcomings of a system based on the dominance of a particular race will be highlighted, particularly since we do better with a different system.” Perhaps he is right, though others might counter that Singapore has never stopped feeling superior to Malaysia after its transformation into a modern nation.