Ikhwan Nazri // イクワン ナズリ

Singlish 101 🇸🇬 Can lah = Yes Can leh = Surprisingly, yes Can lor = Fine, I guess Can what = yes (able to) Caaaaaan = Absolutely not Lanjiao = Good luck and prosperity Cibai = Highest form of respect The last two are especially useful when meeting Singaporeans for the first time.

Everyone says Singapore was “kicked out” of Malaysia. But Tunku Abdul Rahman’s hand may have been more forced than we remember. By 1965, tensions between two competing visions of Malaysia were becoming dangerous. Lee Kuan Yew pushed for a “Malaysian Malaysia” - a country where citizenship, rather than race, determined political rights. UMNO, meanwhile, believed the Malays needed constitutional protections and a special position in what they regarded as their historic homeland. Neither argument existed in a vacuum. Singapore had already seen deadly racial riots in 1964. And politically, LKY was becoming a formidable national figure- articulate, capable, and able to speak directly to Malay voters in fluent Bahasa Melayu. To Tunku, the question may no longer have been simply whether Singapore belonged in Malaysia. It was whether keeping Singapore inside could eventually turn a political struggle into something much worse. So separation happened. Four years later, Malaysia itself suffered the May 13 racial riots after a fiercely contested election, a reminder of just how combustible race and politics were in that era. Today, Singaporeans and Malaysians mostly remember each other as neighbours, relatives, rivals, friends, with plenty of banter in between. Such as whom own nasi lemak (ahem, Indonesia has something to say here) or if Klang or Johor BKT beat Singapore’s. History was far messier than “Singapore got kicked out.” On this Merdeka weekend, worth remembering the difficult choices that shaped Malaya, Malaysia and Singapore. Selamat Hari Merdeka. 🇲🇾