TIL that Singapore is the only country in the world that gained independence against its will. It was expelled from Malaysia in 1965, after a 126-0 vote in the Malaysian parliament.
TIL that Singapore is the only country in the world that gained independence against its will. It was expelled from Malaysia in 1965, after a 126-0 vote in the Malaysian parliament.
Even after the merger, the Singaporean government and the Malaysian central government disagreed on many political and economic issues. Despite an agreement to establish a common market, Singapore continued to face restrictions when trading with the rest of Malaysia. In retaliation, Singapore did not extend to Sabah and Sarawak the full extent of the loans agreed to for economic development of the two eastern states. Talks soon broke down, and abusive speeches and writing became rife on both sides. This led to communal strife in Singapore, culminating in the 1964 race riots. On 7 August 1965, Malaysian prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, seeing no alternative to avoid further bloodshed (and with the help of secret negotiations by PAP leaders, as revealed in 2015) advised the Parliament of Malaysia that it should vote to expel Singapore from Malaysia. On 9 August 1965, the Malaysian Parliament voted 126 to 0 to move a bill to amend the constitution, expelling Singapore from Malaysia, which left Singapore as a newly independent country.
Thank you, friend!
So it wasn’t involuntary, it was just presented as such by Singapore’s fascist government
The video of Lee Kuan Yew crying during an interview following the seperation has always been an interesting watch. Really shows how much he cared about his nation.
Another good one: him discussing how they discovered the CIA trying to bribe an intelligence agent in Singapore. Said agent reported it, so Lee asked the Americans this: we'll let the CIA official go if you give us $100 million to go towards Singapore development. The Americans tried to pay him and his party $10m personally instead. He rejected the offer.
That video is super interesting considering this secession was conspired on to ensure it happened by his party, meaning him.
A lying charlatan of a fascist dictator. Couldn’t be me giving him props but you do you.
As a Malaysian... Pretty much par for the course when it comes to decision-making here, I guess.
that's really funny, but it seems the circumstances that lead to this were rather tough.
Can we do this with Florida and Texas?
Considering they like to execute weed smokers it's probably cuz they're all crazy people.
Wish we can do that with Florida.
No, it was mostly racism. Singapore is mostly Chinese, as I'm sure you're well aware, whereas Malaysia is (obviously) mostly Malays and has several inbuilt benefits to give them advantages in life. A lot of Malaysian Malays were not happy about Singapore having equal racial rights, because they believed that Malays should have special benefits. This and general racial tensions led to hundreds of deaths in racial riots. The decision to separate was heavily influenced by the desire to avoid more racial violence.
I hated this Reddit trend of learning one (1) fact about a country and then linking it to literally every post or comment mentioning the country in any capacity. I really hope it doesn't carry on to Lemmy. Countries are a lot more nuanced than that.