Reflections | How one of the first ‘traitors of the Han Chinese’ gave a huge boost to China’s enemy

According to figures revealed in Malaysia’s parliament in August, a total of 97,318 Malaysians traded their passports for Singaporean citizenship from 2015 to mid-2025, with the numbers peaking dramatically in 2024 at nearly 17,000.

There are a host of reasons, both dispassionate and personal, why many Malaysians are permanently leaving the country of their birth for Singapore and other destinations such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

For most people who change their nationalities, renouncing their former citizenship and adopting a new one is a major, and often emotional, life event. Instead of “naturalisation”, many people from Malaysia call it “conversion”, as if it were a religious experience.

Oddly enough, many Malaysians I know reserve special scorn for former compatriots who “convert” to become Singaporeans.

Those who went farther afield are spared the same contempt. American comedian Ronny Chieng and Australian foreign minister Penny Wong, for example, renounced their original Malaysian nationalities, but that is a non-issue for most Malaysians. Many still affectionately claim them as their “very own”.

There is less love for Malaysians-turned-Singaporeans. The usual reaction of many Malaysians when they encounter “one of those” would be a disparaging side-eye. The less kind ones would even call them “traitors”, as if theirs were the ultimate act of betrayal.