Quote:
Originally Posted by DonQuigleone
True, but you can't expect what goes in a neighbouring country to not affect you? Can you also begrudge Malaysians coming to Singapore (illegally or not) in search of prosperity?
My own opinion is that we can't build a wall around our countries and block out the troubles of the world... In the end it all forces us to look at the world in a more internationalist manner.
We're no more inherently deserving of prosperity then people of other countries, and we pay for that inequality by having that inequality brought downwards by the action of immigrants.
Of course, there's no easy solution to all this.
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Some clarifications are in order: Even though our two countries have grown quite far apart — politically, economically and socially — Singapore and Malaysia still share very close historical and personal links, to the extent that it's a bit absurd to talk in terms of "us" vs "them".
Case in point: Out of a resident population of 3.7 million in 2010, some 22.8% of people who live and work permanently in Singapore were born in Malaysia (source:
Department of Statistics Singapore). My mother, a naturalised citizen, was from Malacca. I have relatives in Malaysia. I have colleagues from Malaysia. A couple of my best female friends are Malaysians.
As far as we're concerned, we're much more wary of recent immigrants than we are of each other. Heck, our accents and slang (and favourite foods) are so similar that, most of the time, we can't even tell each other apart. Sure, we seldom pass up a chance to poke fun at each other, but that's more a sign of affection than enmity, in my opinion.
The rivalries between our two countries stem from a variety of historical accidents, exacerbated by local politics no doubt. But, for the most part, close family and social ties continue to bind our peoples beyond politics (except when it comes to football, but that's another
story).
By and large, if you ignore the politicians, our quarrels are no more venomous than those between, say, Scotland and England, or Canada and the United States. There aren't that many "barriers" per se. Malaysians love Singapore investors in Selangor, Malacca and
Johor states, and they love the Singapore tourist dollar even more along the splendid beaches of the peninsular east coast. And though they aren't as cheap to hire as they once were, plenty of Malaysians continue to draw much better wages in Singapore than they would in Malaysia (especially if they are Chinese).