Malaysia & Singapore…

I have always been portrayed by my peers as an avid Malaysia lover and a vehement Singapore hater… but that is simply not true. I consider all Singaporeans as lost children of Malaysia that shall return the their motherland’s warm and expansive bosom – one day :P

I have many Singaporean friends – so much so that if you start counting friends they would be about 30% of my friends – considering I never studied there or was in Singapore in any long length of time – it is pretty amazing…

Below is a little tale that spontaneously appeared…

A Tale of Two Countries: Malaysia and former Malaysia (Singapore)

What is the difference between Malaysia & Singapore? A common question that we usually hear overseas – I will try and explain this…

Lets see…
This is a map of Malaysia and Singapore (courtesy of Google Earth)...

Now if u can see – the area coloured red is Malaysia…
The red dot is Singapore… The one under the word Singapore… (the other one is Ho Chi Minh City). Please note the dot is bigger than Singapore itself on this map…

The other major country in the region is Indonesia to the south, Thailand to the north & china to the far north. (China is important – we shall see why later)

This is a close-up of Singapore in relation to Malaysia





However, in the eyes of our people… things look a bit different…
Most Malaysians look at Singapore this way…

Small small kacang only…
To be fair – most Singaporeans think this way…

But then… Malaysians could have a lot more quality beach resorts if it was this way…

Can u imagine how big Johor port would be? Whah…. And also all the beaches in a sheltered bay? Amazing….
This may seem bad but then look at this…
Note the border of china near Malaysia?
Waaah – they claimed the entire South China Sea…
(A Chinese foreign ministry official once commented that it belongs to China because it is the South CHINA Sea…)
Does that mean that Bukit CINA (malay spelling), all the Kampung Baru CINA, ‘China’ press all belong to China too?
Hehe - vely vely sound lohgic…
So there… I hereby rename the sea… I can almost hear our foreign minister now... "We have laid claim to all the islands in the North Malaysia Sea... In addition we close all shipping in the Straits of Malacca (by virtue of it being having Malacca in it). This is due to recent developments with India laying claim to the entire Indian Ocean and Japan the entire Sea of Japan."

Our Flags… now our flags here are sacred… and besides we are not suppose to do anything or say anything bad about them… however, I don’t remember that we cannot interpret it :P
The Malaysian Flag

Hmmm... looks like the American flag but more…
Important Points
1) The world’s most unique star… Yeap – NO ONE (hahahaha) no one else in the world have a 14 pointed star… 13 for every state, 1 for all the federal territories (formerly for Singapore).
The only problem is that it is the most annoying star to draw… go ahead try and do it – the angles will confound you. And we had 2 draw it when we were children in primary school (I remember wishing we have Indonesia’s flag)
2) We have… *drum roll* 14 lines to our flag – haha – America has 13 line… We have 1 more than you!!! Beat that!

Looking at it closely, we can see that the Malaysian flag is one helluva kiasu flag… which kinda fits in our national psych of creating the biggest dam- Bakun dam (not built), longest bridge – from Melaka to Dumai in Sumatra (not built), the tallest TWIN towers (built – remember Taipei – u may have 1 tallest building in the world rite now but we had 2!!!), the world’s longest undersea electricity cable to connect East and West Malaysia (not built – no need – no Bakun dam), world’s largest flag atop the world’s tallest flagpole (yeap that’s us!)
And now – can u believe it – we may have the world’s most crooked bridge…
and we are sharing that record with Singapore…

Now for Singapore (hehehe)

Looking at this flag – I also see the kiasuness of the country :)

1) 5 stars (4 more than Malaysia)
a. 5x5 = 25 points (11 more than Malaysia’s star)
2) Red & White represents the Indonesian maid population
3) Moon shows that we were once part of Malaysia…

Last but not least 5 stars lar oui! Not many countries have 5 stars! Other countries that have more stars are…
The world’s biggest superpower

The world’s driest country

1.4billion people live here….

Come to think of it… Singapore have 5 stars too – like China… hmmm – could we be meaning – Chinese lives here too :P


Another thing that is different from Malaysians and Singaporeans – it is the understanding of our national anthems :P…

Put it frankly – All Malaysians understands our National Anthem… legacy of a government imposed Malay language education – but a lot of Singaporeans don’t understand their National Anthem – due to an English based education (the national anthem is in… *drum rolls* Malay!)

Now… there is more *I can hear the groaning in the background*

The truth is… Malaysia & Singapore are like brothers and sisters. One is not better off without the other. Singapore rely on Malaysia as a food supplier, water supplier & industry/workers while Malaysia rely on Singapore for investment, expertise. Besides we are one and another’s biggest trading partner.

The very essence of our differences is that we went our own way from one common beginning. In retrospect, it was a good move to divide Malaysia from Singapore and Singapore from Malaysia. It enabled both countries to grow at their own pace with their own priorities. If Singapore never left Malaysia, I don’t foresee Kuala Lumpur being so advanced (a country is always centred on its biggest city – which would have been Singapore) and there would have been this internal tension between the northern and southern parts of the country.

In conclusion, there is no difference between a Malaysian and a Singaporean. Deep down, we share the same fears (of being inundated by refugees from an unstable neighbour), we breath the same haze filled air (depending on the wind direction & the aforementioned neighbour), we share the same goals – prosperity, peace and progress…

In the end, in the month of August, of which we have both our Independence Days – I would say ‘Majulah Singapura’ and ‘Malaysia Boleh!’

May God bless all of us and may His kingdom come…