Singapore Expats

Even if the two countries are more or less interdependent, I sense that there are some unsolved issues between Singapore and Malaysia (or should I say between Singaporeans and Malaysians).
If this is correct, I would like to ask the following:

1. What is the history of these tensions? Is it that Singapore more or less got thrown out of the Malaysian Federation in 1965?
2. Is there tensions also towards Indonesia (as Indon upheld the so-called konfrontasi policy towards Singapore in the 1960's, placing out bombs etc)?
3. In what ways can you sense these tensions?

Much obliged, as always.

no tension. singaporean and malaysian are all friend friend. singaporean goto JB for makan-makan, and malaysian goto singapore for whatever...

There definitely has been tension in the past. I remember a time when Malaysia refused to let Singapore use their airspace for military flights. That was around the time that lots of accusations were being made by Singaporean politicians about Malaysia being a haven for criminals. Overall, no more tension then most border countries I would say.

Tensions are mainly between politicians.... especially the older ones . As for the residents, no problems... we are used to it. Still travel to and fro like nobody's business.. no tension at all.

jaw wrote:Tensions are mainly between politicians.... especially the older ones . As for the residents, no problems... we are used to it. Still travel to and fro like nobody's business.. no tension at all.

Jaw, You hit the nail on the head, spot on!

The Maria Hertzog incident was many many years ago.

jaw wrote:Tensions are mainly between politicians.... especially the older ones . As for the residents, no problems... we are used to it. Still travel to and fro like nobody's business.. no tension at all.

Hmm dont agree.. Ive met alot of young Singaporeans that speak very badly of malaysians. They can never tell me why though...

zjules wrote:

jaw wrote:Tensions are mainly between politicians.... especially the older ones . As for the residents, no problems... we are used to it. Still travel to and fro like nobody's business.. no tension at all.

Hmm dont agree.. Ive met alot of young Singaporeans that speak very badly of malaysians. They can never tell me why though...

but they still goto JB and genting!

i feel that the tension is only there when someone does not know anybody from the other country... its only a generalisation...

when i first knew my malaysian friends, they were skeptical of me, told me frankly about it... they were in fact gossiping about it "singaporean joining the department" ... these are people who have never been to singapore... for those who had, did not have negative things (not much anyway...) to say about us...

as for me, i think there are black sheeps everywhere... but tension? only at work... regardless of nationality...

In a nutshell, Singapore's government thinks with logic, Malaysia's government thinks with emotion. It's not often the conclusions are the same and hence the tension.

I agree with Jaw's assessment that Singaporeans and Malaysians get along well on a person-to-person level. We like the same food, curse at the same causeway jams, and usually even speak with the same accent!

sprite wrote:There definitely has been tension in the past. I remember a time when Malaysia refused to let Singapore use their airspace for military flights. That was around the time that lots of accusations were being made by Singaporean politicians about Malaysia being a haven for criminals. Overall, no more tension then most border countries I would say.

...and SIA concord wasnt allow to fly in malaysian airspace "because the sonic boom will scare the chicken and they stop laying eggs!". not my quote!

All of these little snippets and anecdotes are not tension. Tension is something that can be felt. These things are just new paper articles about differences in opinions and one upmanship. It there were tension there wouldn't be thousands of Malaysians coming to Singapore every morning and thousands of Singaporean going to JB every weekend. Somebody here is just trying to stir up a tempest in a teacup. I've lived here 25 years and have never seen tension between the peoples of these two countries (with the exception of during elections in the early 80's and this was only due to rebelrousers who, when shut down, quickly were forgotten.

The Concorde, how many years ago was that? The military airspace got about as much tension going as the Pedra Branca Lighthouse did. Absolutely none. Only the politicians were involved. The public could give a rats @$$. I'm not sure you all know what tension is. Now a better definition of cross boarder tension would be between Pakistan & India. That's Tension.



edited for crappy typing - "would" should be "wouldn't"

sundaymorningstaple wrote:It there were tension there would be thousands of Malaysians coming to Singapore every morning and thousands of Singaporean going to JB every weekend.

isn't that whats happening ?? did u mean "wouldn't be"...

Of course the tensions are only on a political level, created mainly by the two dinosaurs LKY and Mahatir. They both had to mobilise their population to further their own needs and what they saw as the needs of the country.

I don't think there are many deep problems between people, though Singaporeans have a reputation for being arrogant towards our neighbours.

drusilla wrote:

sundaymorningstaple wrote:It there were tension there would be thousands of Malaysians coming to Singapore every morning and thousands of Singaporean going to JB every weekend.

isn't that whats happening ?? did u mean "wouldn't be"...

As I said before, I think faster than I can type! Changed. Thanks.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:

drusilla wrote:

sundaymorningstaple wrote:It there were tension there would be thousands of Malaysians coming to Singapore every morning and thousands of Singaporean going to JB every weekend.

isn't that whats happening ?? did u mean "wouldn't be"...

As I said before, I think faster than I can type! Changed. Thanks.

Do you use the two-finger search method?