| |
|
Singapore's ejection from the Federation of Malaysia
will forever be of staggering historical importance
to the two territories involved. This is undeniable.
That the events recalled here will long impact on
matters of South East Asian security, stability,
economic progress and cross-cultural understanding,
similarly, cannot be challenged.
|
| |
| Why then,
it is appropriate to ask, has it taken four decades
for a book like this to become available to the general
public? The answer is deceptively simple: its subject
matter. |
| |
| Any local
author or publisher considering a book project of
this nature would have immediately felt encumbered
by two correlated factors - the need for self-censorship
and the risk of courting the wrath of key political
camps involved during this turbulent period. Pointedly,
the same political power structures operating 40 years
ago, in essence, remain in place today. |
| |
| Forty years
ago I was following a career path as Deputy Director
of External Information within the Malaysian government
apparatus. In this capacity I was able to follow and
experience, at extremely close quarters, the rage
and bitterness being generated on both sides of the
Causeway. The intensity of the wrangling, time and
again, superseded the very issues up for resolution.
|
| |
| As a number
of politicians have led the way by providing, naturally
enough, their specific takes on these events, I felt
the time had come to attempt a different way of approaching
the separation story. There has been, after all, a
dramatic maturing of political consciousness in both
Singapore and Malaysia over the past four decades
and, without question, history demands this story
be related from more than one angle. |
| |
|
Patrick Keith
Melbourne
July, 2005
|
| |
| |
