SINGAPORE – On Sept 16, 1963, Singapore joined the Federation of Malaysia. Less than two years later, on Aug 9, 1965, it left to become an independent nation.
Albatross File: Inside Separation
, edited by Susan Sim and published by Straits Times Press and National Archives of Singapore, sheds new light on this brief, turbulent period.
launched by Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong
on Dec 7, draws on papers that then Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee kept in a file he code-named “Albatross”, as well as oral history interviews with Singapore’s founding leaders.
Dr Goh saw Malaysia as an “albatross” because the hoped-for prosperity and partnership of merger quickly gave way to tensions over race and competing visions of Malaysia’s future. These strains deepened after two racial riots in Singapore in 1964.
From mid-1964, negotiations between Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Goh and Malaysian leaders – including Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman and Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Razak – swung between proposals for cooperation and attempts at constitutional rearrangements.
The Tunku signalled a desire to “hive off” Singapore, while disputes over parliamentary representation, taxation, internal security and the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) role in Malaysia stalled progress.
British pressure further complicated the talks, as did Indonesia’s Konfrontasi campaign against the Federation.
This timeline, based on the chronology detailed in the book, zooms in on the critical three weeks leading up to Aug 9, 1965.
Dr Goh meets Tun Razak, Minister of Home Affairs Ismail Abdul Rahman, and Umno secretary-general Syed Jaffar Albar in Kuala Lumpur.
Asked by Tun Razak for ideas to tackle the strained relationship, Dr Goh suggests going “our separate ways … we leave Malaysia, become an independent state, and you’ll be relieved of all these troubles and we would have also been relieved of troubles from you… We’re on our own, you’re on your own”.
Tun Razak asks Dr Goh to talk to Mr Lee to see if he is “willing to go along with” this proposal.
Mr Lee, briefed by Dr Goh on his meeting, tells Dr Goh that anything is worth trying to avoid a racial collision and to try “all the possible alternatives”.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Razak (second from left) and Malaysian federal ministers V. T. Sambanthan and Tan Siew Sin (flanking Mr Lee Kuan Yew) visited Kampong Chai Chee and Paya Lebar on July 25, 1964 – four days after racial riots erupted in Singapore.
PHOTO: ST FILE
By late October or by November 1964, Mr Lee had already come to the conclusion that “we just could not carry on”, he said in his oral history.
“I had come to the conclusion that if we wanted to avoid further riots, further irritations, friction between them and us at the top, and then their subordinates or their henchmen … working up Malay extremists and causing riots here, and we spreading the discontent and the sense of outrage and injustice up to Malaya, there must be some disengagement, a toning down of tempers and a diminution of the areas of friction and conflict”.
Mr Lee also asks Law Minister E. W. Barker to begin drafting the Separation documents. Mr Barker goes to the Law Library of the University of Singapore to look for precedents.
“I found one – that was the break-up of the Federation of the West Indies,” Mr Barker said in his oral history.
There were three documents to be drafted – an Agreement to Separate; an amendment to the Malaysian Constitution to allow Singapore to separate, as the Constitution only provided for states to join Malaysia but not to leave; and a Proclamation of Independence.
Those in the know about this were kept to a bare minimum.
Dr Goh meets Tun Razak and Tun Dr Ismail in Kuala Lumpur and confirms Mr Lee is agreeable to Singapore seceding.
Dr Goh secures their agreement on three issues: It must be done very quickly, and very quietly, and “presented as a fait accompli to the British”; the constitutional amendments should be passed no later than Aug 9, when the Federal Parliament reconvenes; and Mr Barker will draft the legal documents and show them to Malaysia’s ministers in a week to 10 days.
Dr Goh says that on the Singapore side, only he, Mr Lee, Mr Barker and National Development Minister Lim Kim San – whom the Tunku had confided in June 1965 about his growing desire to remove Singapore from Malaysia – are privy to this proposal.
